Study finds couples who sleep close together are happier

A study from the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K. polled 1,000 people about how they sleep with their partner. The study found that the closer couples slept to one another, the happier they are.

"One of the most important differences involved touching," said Dr. Richard Wiseman, the author of the study. "With 94% of couples who spent the night in contact with one another were happy with their relationship, compared to just 68% of those that didn't touch." Dr. Wiseman's research also looked into the most popular sleep positions for two together. The most popular was sleeping back to back, with 42 percent of couples choosing that method of sleeping together. Second was sleeping facing the same direction, at 31 percent, while only 4 percent, the study found, faced one another while sleeping. At the extremes, 12 percent of couples spend the night less than an inch apart while only 2 percent are more than 30 inches apart. The study did not look into break-up patterns, but one might surmise that being more than 30 inches apart while sleeping together (that's 2 1/2 feet apart!) could ultimately lead to being apart, period.