Publications
Partners
- According to the Annual Global Sleep and Snoring Report, snoring can be detrimental to romantic relationships.
- The survey sampled 2 000 people from three countries, and found that snoring was ranked as one of the most annoying things a partner can do.
- We spoke to some people who shared their experiences with snoring partners and how it affects their love lives.
If you're a light sleeper, having a partner who snores can be quite frustrating. And according to the Annual Global Sleep and Snoring Report, it could actually be detrimental to your relationship.
The yearly report released new stats for 2022. The survey was conducted by OnePoll.com, and sampled 2 000 people in each of three countries: Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
"The findings show that snoring, which in turn leads to sleep deprivation, is having a widespread physiological and psychological impact," the report reads.
"How much of this has been exacerbated by the global pandemic we will have to wait and see, however, there is no doubt that the erosive nature of snoring is placing an additional and substantial burden on individuals, their bed partners and their families at a time when they need it least."
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Are you running your relationship while you sleep?
While the report focused on the effect snoring has on people's lives as a whole, including work, mental and physical well-being, we're going to be looking at the part of the research that zoned in on the link between snoring and relationships.
According to the report, 52% of adults said their relationships suffer because of snoring, while 17% admit snoring has actually ended their relationships.
For 25% of participants, snoring was the most annoying thing that a partner or spouse could do in a relationship. It was ranked high among other points of contention, like talking during a favourite TV show, not filling or emptying the dishwasher, and leaving crumbs behind when making a sandwich.
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We spoke to some people about how snoring has affected their romantic lives, and while not all of them said that it had ended a relationship, everyone agreed that it ranks high in terms of annoyance levels.
"I had such a 'perfect man'. He spoiled me and was so fun to be around. Although it was still fresh, but I was sure we were going to be serious... well, this was until we went for a couple's spa day in Sandton. He planned out this beautiful date, I was beaming and all but as soon as we started with our treatments, he was snoring like an animal. It was so bad, I knew that we would not make it. LOL," one person shared.
Another wrote: "My partner's snoring can be irritating - sometimes it falls under one of the most annoying things he does. Although it can be annoying, I've survived because it isn't always terrible, but when it is, I intervene with a nudge or kick (depending on how bad it is) when it affects my beauty sleep. Despite his snoring ways, he's still amazing for cuddles."
And finally, this person realised that she was the problem when she was made aware of her snoring: "So I'm the one person who likes to talk smack about people who snore and recently I got a reality check. It turns out that I'm the partner that snores when sleeping. When I first heard this, I was quick to be defensive because how dare you say 'sleeping beauty' snores. Until one night as I was dosing off and my own snoring woke me up. The next morning, I woke up and apologised. I got laughed at, and now I'm humble."
