Couples should consider sleeping apart for the good of their health, an expert said today.
Getting a decent night's sleep is more important than cosying up between the sheets to please your partner, says Dr Neil Stanley.
Research evidence suggests that sharing a bed is bad for sleep, he told the British Science Festival.
One study found that if one partner moved in his or her sleep there was a 50% chance of it disturbing the other.
Another revealed that the longer couples had spent together, the more likely they were to have separate rooms. By the time they were aged in their 70s, 40% were choosing to sleep apart.
Other research showed that men were likely to prod their snoring partners awake, while women tended to put up with the noise - as they struggled to sleep.
Dr Stanley, who set up one of Britain's leading sleep laboratories at the University of Surrey, said poor sleep was linked to depression, heart disease, strokes, lung disorders, traffic and industrial accidents, and divorce. Yet sleep was largely ignored as an important aspect of health.
"If you want to live a happy and healthy life, diet and exercise are important but so is sleep," said Dr Stanley, speaking at the University of Surrey in Guildford.
He said the modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space.
Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart, he argued. In ancient Rome, the marital bed was a place for sexual congress but not for sleeping.
"This is definitely something couples should be talking about," said Dr Stanley, who admitted that he and his wife had been sleeping apart for years.
"It's about what makes you happy. If you've been sleeping together and you both sleep perfectly well, then don't change, but don't be afraid to do something different.
"We all know what it's like to have a cuddle and then say 'I'm going to sleep now' and go to the opposite side of the bed. So why not just toddle off down the landing?
"The English-speaking way is to have that four foot six wide double bed and then put this person in there who snores, makes noises, kicks and turns over. It's little wonder we're not getting enough sleep."
Generally speaking "posh" people seldom shared a bed, Dr Stanley maintained.
"If you go round any stately home you will always find the lord and lady's bedrooms," he added. "We all know the Queen and Prince Philip don't sleep together."
He said it was time society woke up to the importance of sleep.
"The Government gives us advice on five-a-day fruit and vegetables and walking 1,000 steps but where's the advice about getting a good night's sleep?" said Dr Stanley.
"We don't take it seriously; we don't have a dialogue. Look at any style magazine and have you ever seen a feature on a bed?"
There was no hard and fast rule about how much sleep was necessary, said he added.
Research suggested some people could get by on as little as three or four hours while others needed 11.
"Basically if you are happy, alive, awake and healthy the next day then you've had enough sleep," said Dr Stanley.
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