Hi there, it's Matt here and welcome back to the podcast. Let's begin with four curious questions.

First, does better sleep mean better sex for you and your partner?

Second, should you have a sleep divorce to prevent a real one?

Third, can sleep even secure the emotional health of your relationship?

And fourth, if sleep can improve sex then can sex improve your sleep

because the next two episodes are all about sleep and sex and sleep.

Let's start with the question of sleeping together

versus sleeping apart, which is to say let's speak about a sleep divorce.

A few years ago the sleep council in my home country of England

surveyed over 1,200 couples.

And what they found was that one in four people within a couple

would get up during the night and go to either a spare room or to the sofa in order to get a good night of sleep.

And then the National Sleep Foundation here in America conducted a survey and what they found was that almost 25% of couples

would admit to sleeping in separate bedrooms. The problem here is that we think these numbers are conservative.

Since 45% of couples will say that they are too ashamed to admit that they sleep apart. And a more recent survey that was conducted

anonymously found that in fact 30 to 40 percent of couples will actually sleep in different beds. Part of the shame or the public worry of admitting

to other people that you'll go through a sleep divorce

is the incorrect assumption

that if you're not sleeping together,

then you're not sleeping together.

And as we'll learn, the exact opposite can be true.

But even at this early stage of the episode I want to be clear

...