Tips for Better Sleep with Your Partner

Sleep, blessed sleep.  It’s a pain to find great sleep on your own, add a partner to the equation, and sometimes it can be downright impossible.  Is there a magic sleep position that solves all issues?  How about a specific mattress to get you both to stop moving so much? Better yet, a sheet set designed to prevent being torn from the foot of the bed! Short answer…NO, but don’t lose hope.  Instead, let’s go over some helpful tips to get you some much-needed shut-eye.

Keep YOUR Favorite Position

There are zero reasons for you to lose your favorite sleep position.  Sure, cuddling is important, and physical touch strengthens relationships, but that does not mean you lose your needs.  You need to be able to express yourself just as much in your sleep as you do in your wake hours.  Don’t give up on the fetal position just yet!

Compromise with your partner on a starting position. Touch is super important, don’t lose sight of that. A simple “plan” per se of what the starting position will be can help everyone get along a whole lot better than just assuming you’re going to stay “together” and in sync the entire night.

Have Your Own Covers

This one goes out to all the victims of blanket hogging partners.  I feel your pain, well not really because, in my house, I am the blanket hog, but from what I understand, it’s a real issue.

Here’s the deal, if you can’t beat the blanket hog at their game, why not get your own blanket? Yes, I am saying have one on your partner’s side and one on yours. It’s like the ultimate in peace negotiations, BOTH parties win! Genius right? Not really, it’s common practice in some cultures. Evidently, blanket hogging was such an issue that some people’s ancestors just said screw it and got their own buffalo skins hundreds of years ago.

Prevent the Starfish!

Have you heard of the starfish sleeping position, or do I have to explain it to you? Ok, so here is the mental image. Your partner’s asleep, your partner is helping themselves to 90% of the sleep surface by laying there on their back in their sleep with their arms flayed out and legs spread wide.  Get the picture? Hopefully, you aren’t the one suffering through this; better yet, don’t be the one doing this!

How do you avoid this? Well, honestly, there isn’t a real solution, but some research led me to see the wisdom in preventing your partner from being comfortable taking up so much space.  Prevention can be done by using a very high loft body pillow in between you two.  Yes, this will prevent some physical touch, but like tip, one says – Start with a plan, then lead up to this.

The high loft body pillow, which most body pillows are high loft, acts as a lift area that your partner can’t comfortably spread in to.  In theory, this should work, in practice, I don’t know, but I would love some feedback! Let me know, please!

How about getting a bigger bed? Go from that Queen size mattress up to a King. That should let them spread out and give you plenty of space too! Unless you sleep with a dog, then you just gave the dog more room to spread out, and you’re still on edge, hoping you don’t fall to your doom.

Same Bedtimes, Same Waketimes

Am I realistic about this one? Probably not for many of us, but IF you can do this, then, by all means, know that committing to sleeping on the same schedule will help your relationship in so many more ways other than just finding great sleep together.

Earplugs

Sounds simple, doesn’t it. Earplugs are indeed a Godsend. They are available in large quantities and are reasonably cheap. The best part is that they are not disruptive to your sleep in any way.

I recommend using the foam earplugs that you squish to fit into your ear canal. They work wonders and won’t wake you if they fall out during your sleep. Get a pack of these today!

Hopefully, one or more of these tips helps you find that blessed sleep we all deserve.  I know that having a great partner is a blessing in itself, but that blessing needs to translate in sleep time and in wake time, and some times we have to work a little harder at things.  One more tip that I can give from personal experience and I can tell you that it is probably the best tip – Communicate.  Yes, communicate. It’s as easy as telling your loved one of the issues you’re having and working it. Things won’t always be easy to overcome, especially if they’re asleep and don’t know what they’re doing, but two heads can come up with more solutions than one!  Plus, communicating beats holding a pillow over their head anytime.