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"  The first night my boyfriend, Mike, and I slept in the same bed together three years ago, he held me from the time our heads hit the pillows until our eyes opened eight hours later \u2014 and even late into the morning, as we put off making coffee to prolong the cuddle. We spent the next few months doing more of the same: going to bed together every night and magically waking up in virtually the same position we started in. But then I took a new job that required me to get up way earlier, and I moved my bedtime up a few hours. I got used to hitting the hay alone. Pretty soon, I was waking up alone too.  There isn&amp;#039;t a single reason Mike and I don&amp;#039;t sleep together anymore. There are many reasons. For starters: I like to be bundled up with as many blankets as possible, and he thinks a paper towel would be too heavy. In my mind, I sleep hugging the edge of the bed, but in Mike&amp;#039;s version of the story, I&amp;#039;m smack in the middle. Mike tosses and turns, while I&amp;#039;m knocked out drooling (in an adorable way!) within 10 seconds.  I never asked him to find another place to sleep. In part, his decision to decamp (to the couch; our tiny apartment doesn&amp;#039;t have a guest room) came from the guilt he felt for waking me up night after night. But he also realized he slept better alone. Once he figured that out, he began crashing in the living room, and liking it.  Don&amp;#039;t give me the pity eyes yet. Just because we sleep separately doesn&amp;#039;t mean our relationship is any less strong (we&amp;#039;re a lot nicer to each other \u2014 and other people \u2014 when we&amp;#039;re well rested) or less intimate (predictable, before-bed sex has never been our thing). We&amp;#039;re finally starting to accept our not-so-conventional sleeping habits, but we hesitate to explain them to friends and family. If they knew, would they doubt that Mike and I are in love? This is a scary question. Luckily, with a bit of digging, I found so many people who sleep weirdly, whether together or apart, that lovey-dovey cuddlers just might be the weirdest pairs of all. Paige, 40, and her husband &amp;quot;sleep with our feet touching, which to me is just the loveliest, warmest thing imaginable.&amp;quot; But she proceeds to say that her hubby goes to bed naked \u2014 and she prefers to get cozy in neck-to-toe pajamas. &amp;quot;He complains and tries to get me to sleep in the nude,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Sometimes I&amp;#039;ll give in and keep my PJs off for the first half hour, then sneak out of bed while he&amp;#039;s sleeping and put them on.&amp;quot; Paige and her husband aren&amp;#039;t so out there: An ABC News survey found that American men are twice as likely as women to sleep in the buff (31 percent versus 14 percent).  Blake, 28, takes overdressing to an extreme. At lights out, she closes up shop by putting on a wool hat (yes, even in the summer), a healthy slathering of face moisturizer, and a thick coat of lip balm. &amp;quot;My look isn&amp;#039;t so hot, but he&amp;#039;s gotten used to it,&amp;quot; she says. Cuddling and sex happen on the couch; when they&amp;#039;re in bed, the goal is to get as much sleep as possible before their 17-month-old wakes up.  Then there&amp;#039;s Katie, 29, who goes to bed at the same time as her husband but, thanks to modern technology, might as well be on a separate continent. &amp;quot;He started reading his Kindle in bed while I&amp;#039;d try to sleep,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;The light would keep me up, so now I bring in my laptop.&amp;quot; He reads while she catches up on blogs until they&amp;#039;re both exhausted. Then they slap on their iPods and let their music (him: classic rock; her: Top 40 to drown out his leaking ear buds) lull them to sleep, unaware if the other gets up to use the bathroom.   Katie says she&amp;#039;s willing to compromise so her husband can get a good night&amp;#039;s sleep \u2014 but should she? It&amp;#039;s not like she prefers conking out all wired up. &amp;quot;Sure, if a deep sleeper can bend to meet the needs of a lighter sleeper, the relationship will benefit,&amp;quot; says Patti Wood, author of Success Signals: Understanding Body Language. &amp;quot;Just check in from time to time to make sure it&amp;#039;s still okay.&amp;quot; Whatever the setup, incidentally, Wood believes that our sleeping positions have significance. For example, she analyzes a spooning couple: &amp;quot;One person is saying, I can turn my back on you and feel safe \u2014 you have my back; the other is saying, I want to surround you and take you in.&amp;quot; Well, isn&amp;#039;t that precious! What am I saying when I make snow angels in the middle of the bed while Mike curls up by himself a room away?  And what is Joy, 43, saying when she sleeps head to foot with her husband? &amp;quot;If he&amp;#039;s snoring or breathing heavily, I put my head at the foot of the bed, and I find that the added distance between his face and my ears blunts the sounds that would otherwise keep me awake.&amp;quot; As of press time, she&amp;#039;s only kicked him in the head once. Like me, Amy, 40, goes to bed hours before her husband, John. But unlike me, they make up for the discrepancy with a special wind-down period. &amp;quot;John comes to bed with me, and we&amp;#039;ll talk, snuggle, or he&amp;#039;ll play with my hair until I go to sleep,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Then he gets up and continues doing his thing. We run around all day, and this is our chance to have an intimate moment that doesn&amp;#039;t necessarily lead to sex.&amp;quot;  There are also women like Angela, 40, who hasn&amp;#039;t shared a bed with her husband in five years. Angela and her daughter get their z&amp;#039;s in the living room while her husband and son share the master bedroom&amp;#039;s king-size bed, but that arrangement doesn&amp;#039;t mean they have a less loving relationship. In fact, it makes intimacy more fun. &amp;quot;We send each other sexy texts \u2014 so the kids can&amp;#039;t hear \u2014 and make plans to meet in another room when they go to sleep. The sneaking off is part of the foreplay.&amp;quot; Marriage and family therapist Jeanne Bertoli, Ph.D., emphasizes that sleeping together, and without distractions (hello, headphone couple), is worth the effort. &amp;quot;Lying next to someone gives you a sense of intimacy that can enhance your relationship without your even knowing it,&amp;quot; she says. I had to ask: Does that mean sleeping separately \u2014 or a little strangely \u2014 is a bad sign? &amp;quot;Not necessarily, as long as you make up for it in other ways,&amp;quot; she reassures me. &amp;quot;If nothing else, try clocking 15 minutes of undistracted cuddle time before parting ways at night.&amp;quot; Or\u2026 don&amp;#039;t, says psychologist Paul Rosenblatt, Ph.D., who spent 20 months interviewing couples for his book Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing. After all that research, he&amp;#039;s laid-back about how crucial a sleeping style is to a relationship. &amp;quot;You should do whatever works best for you,&amp;quot; he says. That&amp;#039;s good news, considering it&amp;#039;s midnight as I write this, and Mike&amp;#039;s already comfortable\u2026 on the couch. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/relationships/advice/a12647/sleep-positions/>