One of the first purchases we made when we moved into our house last year was buy a bigger mattress. At the time, we still let our two little dogs sleep with us and, with a queen sized bed and four sleeping in it, things were getting tight.
We made the decision to buy a king sized mattress and then started making the girls sleep on their own bed in the laundry room and it changed everything. It was glorious. Such a better night’s sleep! But we made another decision that’s made all the difference, too: every few months, we started switching which sides of the bed we slept on.
PJ suggested it one day, a couple of months in, just when we were getting used to sleeping on a new bed in a new house. We were both skeptical at first, but changing everything up turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. We're both so used to sleeping on one side each night that our bodies had grown accustomed to laying a certain way, and sometimes we would even wake up sore.
Switching sides of the bed gives you and your partner the chance to experience how it feels to sleep in different directions and hopefully find the one that both of you agree on. If you don't like your side of the bed once you make the switch, you can change it in a month or two. This article gives some statistics conducted by Saatva Mattress (a luxury mattress company) that we found interesting:
- Right side sleeping males feel relaxed instead of stressed most of the time when compared to men sleeping on the left (71% vs. 60%)
- Almost half (46%) say that when they first got together as a couple, both partners preferred the same side of the bed and 79% of them had to concede their preferred side to their partner.
Pretty crazy, right? Do you switch sides of the bed with your partner regularly? If not, give it a try! You might be surprised with how good you'll start sleeping.
(Bed from here. Lamps from here. Duvet from here.)