The path to happiness may start off in the bedroom

Are you unhappy, then perhaps you should blame your bedfellow? Your discontentment may be down to your partner's performance in the boudoir.

Research into what makes us happy revealed there are two things we require for contentment, namely, sufficient sleep and not letting yourself get too hungry.

The latter, most of us achieve without any effort, but if your bedfellow is a champion snorer (like my husband!) chances are you spend little time in the land of nod and most of the night staring murderously at their slumbering back. Many a night I have lain beside hubby becoming more agitated by the minute, as he snoozes on blissfully unaware of his Richter scale roars filling the bedroom.

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I have tried earplugs, but all they did was muffle the volume a little and they were quite uncomfortable to sleep in. Some evenings I can bear it no more and I slip off to the spare room.

Does your bedfellow's snoring keep you away?Does your bedfellow's snoring keep you away?
Does your bedfellow's snoring keep you away?

Hubby has been so perturbed by his snoring affecting me that he was determined to have an operation done privately to solve the problem, but I won’t let him! I hate the thought of him undergoing surgery when it’s not essential to his health.

What if there were complications resulting in terrible consequences? In my opinion it’s not worth taking the risk. He has tried every remedy under the sun including anti-snoring devices like nasal strips, throat sprays, even honey and warm water before bed to lubricate the vocal cords. He was even referred to hospital where they made him a vestibular shield, a plastic device that looks like a gum shield to wear at night.

It fits inside the mouth and blocks the flow of air, forcing you to breathe through your nose, which may prevent you from opening your mouth and snoring. The shield proved very uncomfortable for him to wear and made his mouth bleed so I hid it. I loathed the thought of him being in discomfort on my behalf.

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It’s estimated that 45 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women snore. Hubby reports that I have recently begun to snore too. Mine aren’t of the window-rattling proportions of hubby’s nocturnal rumblings, apparently mine are more piggy-like snorts he claims, how attractive I thought! It’s probably because I’ve recently gained weight.

Does your bedfellow's snoring keep you away?Does your bedfellow's snoring keep you away?
Does your bedfellow's snoring keep you away?

Snoring is caused by vibrations of the soft palette.

There’s a variety of explanations why it happens, from smoking to being overweight and it can be a drain on ourselves and our relationships, as sleep is so important to our health and happiness.

We spend a third of our lives sleeping. Shuteye is essential in maintaining our normal levels of cognitive skills, namely speech, memory and thinking. Sleep plays a huge role in brain development. If there’s a continued lack of sufficient sleep the part of the brain that controls language, memory, planning and sense of time practically shuts down.

In fact, 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to having two glasses of wine. Research also shows that not getting enough zeds makes it difficult to make rational judgements and sleep deprivation is said to have been a contributory factor in international disasters like Chernobyl and The Challenger Shuttle explosion.

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Sleep loss may also increase the risk of obesity, as hormones and chemicals that help control appetite are released during sleep.

Eleven days is the longest scientifically documented record for the length of time a human has intentionally gone without sleep, without using stimulants. Randy Gardner achieved this title in 1965. Four days into the experiments he began hallucinating, this was followed by the delusions of thinking he was a famous footballer and that a street sign was a person. By the 11th day he was asked to subtract seven repeatedly starting with 100 but stopped when he reached 65 as he couldn’t remember what he was doing.

It’s evident that sleep is important to our sustained happiness. No wonder Sleeping Beauty lived happily ever after, she had one hundred years of uninterrupted kip! There’s nothing quite like that warm, fuzzy feeling you get from the benefit of a good night’s sleep.

Slumber is chicken soup for the soul and sometimes you just need a separate room and some solitary sleep time to recharge if you share a bed with a snorer.

It’s like the old saying goes; laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone!

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