When it comes to the subject of sleep, I am a fanatic. I’ll admit I am biased. I have always needed a lot of sleep — nine to 10 hours! — so it’s easy for me to notice the impact of a poor night’s sleep; I get short and irritable. Still, it seems people can get used to sleeping with less and start to think it’s normal. I hear this kind of thing in my office all the time: “I’ve never slept well. I do fine on six hours a night. I have too much to do to sleep.”
Recent research confirms the negative impact too little sleep has on our relationships. This study surveyed 100 couples, putting over 70 of them in a sleep lab, and found that many problems arose in their relationships after poor sleep habits, including more negative feelings, more conflict and less ability to manage conflict.
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