CNN posted an article on couples who are married, but don't sleep together. Why would a married couple not sleep together? Try this one. "We were lying in bed spooning when he had an elbow spasm and punched me in the jaw," says Barbara, a 55-year-old graphic designer from Lansing, Michigan, who asked that her last name not be used. A 2001 survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that 12 percent of married Americans slept alone; in 2005 that number had jumped to 23 percent. In March, 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. Other reasons include snoring and leg jerking or a heavy twitcher.

Some experts aren't so sure sleeping separately is a good idea. "My feeling is that sleeping together is a very, very important part of being integrated with each other," says clinical psychologist and marriage counselor William F. Harley Jr. Others think this is the new way of marriage, citing that when they're better rested, they are a better spouse and parent.

What do you think? Is sleeping in separate beds or rooms bad for marriage? Do you do this?

Labels: commentary, study