University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

Download PDF
Publication #FAR3033

 

Impact of Snoring on Marriage1

Donna Davis2

Figure 1. 
[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

My Uncle Arlie was legendary for two reasons, his sneezes and his snoring. Both could be heard miles away, or so it seemed. Although I don’t think that was the reason he remained single his entire life, researchers are finding that snoring may have more of an impact on marriages than one might think. According to Rosalind Cartwright, founder of the Sleep Disorders Center at Rush University Medical Center, “Couples who struggle with sleep apnea have a high divorce rate.”

Researchers at the Center are conducting a sleep study specifically to determine the impact that men’s sleep apnea has on their wives' quality of sleep and on the couple’s marital satisfaction. The initial study evaluated ten couples from which the husband had been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. They found that wives were sleep deprived as a result of the noise, and husbands were sleep deprived as a result of their apnea. Couples became more tense and hostile and their marriages were strained.

Couples went through a treatment at home with a machine that allows the lungs to function normally during sleep, and began to see improvement in their relationships. In one case, the wife’s quality of life measure jumped from 1.2 to 7. She reported a dramatic drop in sleepiness, and her marital satisfaction scores nearly doubled.

If your marriage is sleep-challenged as a result of a snoring spouse, in addition to the device that keeps your airways open, sleep experts recommend losing weight, sleeping on your side, and avoiding alcohol and tobacco, all of which are known to disrupt sleep.

Listening, learning and living together, it’s the science of life. “Family Album” is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you’d like to learn more, please visit our website at http://familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://radiosource.net/radio_stories/392.mp3

http://radiosource.net/radio_stories/392.wav

Reference

“Can Snoring Ruin a Marriage? Couples Sleep Study at Rush Looks at the Link Between Quality Sleep and Marital Satisfaction.” Rush University Medical Center, Rush News Room. Retrieved 2/19/06 from www.rush.edu/webapps/MEDREL/servlet/NewsRelease?ID=726.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR3033, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 392 in January 2007. Published on EDIS August 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.