14 DAY TRIAL // Can a 'harmless' snore end a marriage? This is the question researchers at the Sleep Disorders Center at Rush University Medical Center have asked themselves.
They wanted to see how a husband's sleep apnea impacts the wife's sleep quality and the couple's marital satisfaction.
"This is a frequent problem within marriages that nobody is paying enough attention to. Couples who struggle with sleep apnea have a high-divorce rate. Can we save marriages by treating sleep apnea? It's a question we hope to answer," said Rosalind Cartwright, PhD, founder of the Sleep Disorders Center at Rush.
The Married Couples Sleep Study evaluated 10 couples in which the male has been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and the sleep quality in the special facilities within the center.
"Our early results are showing that the wife's sleep is indeed deprived due to the husband's noisy nights. This is not a mild problem. The lack of sleep for both partners puts a strain on the marriage and creates a hostile and tense situation," Cartwright added.
For example, in one couple, the husband's snoring was arousing the wife out of sleep over eight times an hour. Her sleep efficiency rating, which is the percentage of time she is actually sleeping during the night, was 73 percent. The average person's sleep efficiency is closer to 90 percent. The wife had tried ear plugs, earphones, and numerous other devices to try to sleep through the snoring. She eventually gave up and chose to sleep alone.
As a consequence of the results, the husband underwent two weeks of treatment at home using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which prevents the upper airway from collapsing during sleep.
The conclusion one might draw from this study is that if left untreated, obstructive sleep apnea could destroy couples.