Morning and Night Couples: The Effect of Wake and Sleep Patterns on Marital Adjustment*

Abstract

This study explored the effects of spouses' wake and sleep patterns on marital adjustment. A total of 150 couples from three states completed questions on wake/sleep patterns, marital interaction, marital adjustment, and problem solving. Couples whose wake and sleep patterns were mismatched (e.g., an evening person married to a morning person) reported significantly less marital adjustment, more marital conflict, less time spent in serious conversation, less time spent in shared activities and less frequent sexual intercourse than matched couples. Contrary to expectations for matched couples, night couples did not report more involvement in extra‐familial social activities than morning couples. Morning couples engaged in sexual intercourse more frequently in the morning than night couples; night couples had sex more often in the evening than morning couples. There were no significant differences in the intercourse rates for morning couples and night couples. Compared to matched couples, mismatched couples with high marital adjustment reported more flexibility and adaptability in their marital problem solving. The implications of these findings for premarital counseling and marital therapy are discussed.

Two in a bed: The influence of couple sleeping and chronotypes on relationship and sleep. An overview

“…Whereas in males, the greatest need for sex occurred either in the morning or evening hours according to their chronotype (evening types at 9:00–12:00 and 18:00–3:00 and in morning types at 6:00–12:00 and 18:00–24:00). As a possible consequence, couples with mismatched chronotypes have more marital conflicts and less sexual intercourse than matched couples (Larson et al, 1991). …”

It's More than Sex: Exploring the Dyadic Nature of Sleep and Implications for Health

“…Just as the effects of social control on health behaviors have been shown to be moderated by qualitative aspects of the couples’ relationship functioning, the degree to which spousal members influence each other’s sleep-wake rhythms may also depend on the quality of the relationship. To date, however, only a handful of cross-sectional studies (97,98) have addressed this question, by examining the covariation between relationship quality and couple concordance (or discordance) in sleep-wake preferences. Overall, these studies suggested that couples who are “mismatched” in terms of circadian preferences (i.e., night owls with morning larks) reported poorer marital functioning as compared with “matched” couples.…”

Couples' Nighttime Sleep Efficiency and Concordance: Evidence for Bidirectional Associations With Daytime Relationship Functioning

“…For instance, couples who are concordant in either their sleep-wake preferences (i.e., larks versus owls) or their actual sleep times report higher marital adjustment and fewer conflicts (11, 12). These findings suggest that a dynamic interdependence in bedpartners’ sleep-wake rhythms exists that may influence, and be influenced by, contextual factors in the couple’s relationship.…”