Sleep patterns and marital satisfaction

Abstract

With fewer people getting married and more people getting divorced in Western industrial societies, the study of marriage continues to be a topic of great interest (US Census Bureau, 2012). This current study examined the relationship between marital satisfaction and sleep patterns with a sample of ten married couples. Email interviews were used for data collection (Meho, 2006). The qualitative approach used in this study was phenomenology, which according to Patton is the study of lived experience (2002). The lived experience comes from multiple contexts including emotions, culture, relationships, jobs, and programs. The interview brings us closer to understanding the subject’s experience. A content analysis (Kvale, 1996) of the email interview responses was conducted and themes were determined. Member checking was performed to verify validity of the general ideas and themes. Results from our study revealed that spending time together before bed or in the morning increases marital satisfaction as it allows time for communication and intimacy. Implications for practitioners working with married couples are to encourage engaged and married couples to have discussion and agreement on bedtime or wake routines that leave room for interaction with one another. Implications for future research include a larger sample size, wider variety of participants, and the impact that night shift work and stress have on marital satisfaction. Keywords: marital satisfaction,