Abstract Rationale Recent unpublished surveys indicated that around 30% of Americans choose not to share a bed with their partners regularly, a phenomenon often referred to as “sleep divorce”. It remains unclear, however, the magnitude and determinants of this growing sleep behavior in the population. The primary objective was to determine the prevalence of sleep divorce and its potential causes in the ELSA-Brasil study. Methods Consecutive participants from the ELSA-Brasil study completed a structured questionnaire addressing relationship status, sleeping arrangements, and partner-related sleep disturbances. The instrument approached reasons for the sleep divorce (if present), partner agreement regarding this practice, perceived impact of the partner on sleep quality, awareness of partner’s sleep apnea and its treatment, as well as self-perceived effect on the partner’s sleep and underlying causes. Results Among 1,420 participants (63±8 years; 39.1% men), 45.7% reported being dissatisfied with their current sleep pattern. Among the 901 participants who were married or in a stable union, the prevalence of sleep divorce was 16.5%, significantly higher in women participants (60.9% vs. 39.1%). The frequency of insomnia complaints was higher in the sleep divorce group in comparison to the non-sleep divorce group (38.7% vs. 33.5%). One-third of participants practicing sleep divorce stated that their partner impaired their sleep. The top reason was loud snoring/sleep apnea (75%). Other contributing factors included misaligned sleep schedules (60.7%), excessive movements (58.9%), and electronic device use (32.1%). Overall, 71.6% perceived the practice of sleep divorce as beneficial, and 80.4% reported that their partner agreed with this sleep behavior routine. Conclusion Sleep divorce affected one in six couples in the ELSA-Brasil, mainly due to snoring/sleep apnea and misaligned routines. Most partners faced as a positive strategy towards healthy sleep patterns. This abstract is funded by: FAPESP (2019/23496-8)
Drager et al. (Fri,) studied this question.