How the Scandinavian sleep method can help you sleep better, according to a sleep expert
If sleep divorce feels too drastic for you and your partner but you're struggling to get a good night of sleep, the Scandinavian sleep method may be the balance you're looking for.
While sleep divorce involves sleeping separately from your partner, the Scandinavian sleep method keeps you in the same bed — just under two different covers.
Americans began hearing about the method, popular in Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway and Denmark, thanks to social media. A posted on the sleeping style last year by Swedish influencer Cecilia Blomdahl has since garnered 1.7 million views.
"I'm actually a big fan of (this trend) as long as both parties are on board," Ellen Wermter, representative, family nurse practitioner and behavioral sleep medicine specialist, told CBS News. "It's really nice to sleep with a partner, but certainly we know that the other person can cause disruptions in your sleep, just naturally, through either temperature regulation, through movement or through, basically, cover hogging."
Whether you use a duvet, comforter or something else, each partner has their own as opposed to sharing one — and potentially pushing and pulling on it unknowingly throughout the night.
The only downside Wermter sees is if you're someone who likes to cuddle before bed. But realistically, couples often separate before actually falling asleep anyway, she said.
"You could do your cuddling and still use this method," she said. "If people don't want to take as extreme a step as separate beds or separate rooms, this can give you a little bit of separateness and individualization with still being within arm's reach of each other and feeling the comfort of having a bed partner close by."
Wermter herself follows a modified method that can work for those who experience a cold draft from their partner's movement or size difference.
"(With) height differences between people, you can get this sort of airflow that's coming in that's cold and disruptive," she said. She shares a main comforter with her husband but also has her own separate blanket for temperature regulation.
"If I get hot in the middle of the night, I just shove that little blanket out of the way, and I still have the top blanket," she said. "I really do think there are advantages to it because then you can deal with your own issues and not have to be playing a tug of war with your bed partner."
Still having trouble sleeping? It may be time to see a sleep specialist, Wermter said.
"If you've tried the typical common sense fixes, and if you're still feeling like you're having more interruptions than you would like at night or waking up feeling not rested, those are good cues that it might be time to talk to someone," she said.
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