I know that’s kind a personal question, but …. are you? I only ask because I read a story about married couples who don’t sleep in the same bed — not even the same room — but are still quite happy. The so-called trend seems to be increasing in numbers, too. Back in 2001 a random telephone survey of 1,004 adults conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that 12 percent of married Americans slept alone; a similar 2005 survey of 1,506 people found that number had jumped to 23 percent. In addition, a March online survey of 1,408 couples conducted by the Sleep Council of England found that 1 in 4 people regularly retreats to a spare room or sofa to get a good night’s sleep.

It’s not because they don’t get along or can’t stand each other or anything like that. It’s for reasons such as snoring, twitching legs, opposite schedules or other nocturnal difficulties, among others. Women they talked to who sleep apart from their husbands actually said it helped make their marriage stronger.

Alisa Bowman, a 37-year-old freelance writer from Emmaus, Pennsylvania, says that sleeping apart from her husband Mark, 42, a few nights a week — something that began five years ago when she was pregnant — has made their marriage stronger.

“I’m a better mom and wife when I’m rested,” says Bowman, who says she’s always had trouble sleeping with another person in the room. “I also think it makes you appreciate each other more.”

Sleeping apart hasn’t hurt Scott Hepburn’s marriage, either, says the 29-year-old copywriter from Charlotte, North Carolina, who sleeps alone five nights a week because he’s a night owl and his wife, Carolyn, is an early bird.

“She teases me about it, but it’s never been a major point of contention in our relationship,” he says. “We actually have a lot of fun with it. When I do something stupid, she threatens to punish me by making me sleep in the same bed with her.”

But what about sex, you ask? Well, according to one woman named Barbara, it’s made their sex lives even richer:

“We create time for each other,” she says. “We have ‘dates,’ and to be honest, it’s pretty romantic. We’re both awake for one thing, as opposed to people who think they’ve been intimate but they’ve slept through the whole thing. Now it’s like, ‘My place or yours?’”

I’ll let you in on a little secret now. Hubs and I usually sleep apart. He works different hours and different days, and most of the time our sleeping schedules don’t coincide at all. Plus I have those pesky twitchy legs that keep him awake. It definitely works for us. How about you? Are you married and sleeping alone?

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