To Spoon Or Not To Spoon: What Does Your Sleep Position Say About Your Relationship?

By Chelsea Karnash

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Prefer to cuddle or need your space?

Turns out the way you sleep with your partner could be about more than just comfort.

According to a recent study from the University of Hertfordshire in Britain and carried out at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, the way couples sleep together says a good deal about their personalities and happiness in their relationship.

Researchers surveyed 1,000 people about their preferred sleeping methods, with back-to-back shut-eye coming out the most popular (42%). Thirty-one-percent claimed to sleep facing the same direction, and only four-percent slept facing each other.

Two-percent of partners also said they spend the night more than 30 inches apart, while 12-percent admitted to keeping close at less than one inch from one another.

Interestingly, the couples who slept in contact with one another were happier overall – 94-percent of those couples said they were happy in their relationship.

And the further apart the pairs slept, the more unhappy they seemed to be. Eighty-six-percent of those who hit the hay less than an inch apart rated their relationship happy, while just 66% of those who slept more than 30 inches apart said the same.

"This is the first survey to examine couples' sleeping positions, and the results allow people to gain an insight into someone's personality and relationship by simply asking them about their favourite sleeping position," said Professor Richard Wiseman, who headed the study.

Other things gleaned from the research? Extroverts tended to snooze close to their significant other, and "creative types" were partial to sleeping on their left-hand side.

For more information on the study, click here.