How to sleep: Alone or with a partner? Study finds which one has more health benefits

msn.com:

READ MORE: High cholesterol: Cramp in five areas of the body can be a signLead author the study Brandon Fuentes said: "Sleeping with a romantic partner or spouse shows to have great benefits on sleep health including reduced sleep apnoea risk, sleep insomnia severity, and overall improvement in sleep quality. "Dr Michael Grander, also of the University of Arizona, added: "Very few research studies explore this, but our findings suggest that whether we sleep alone or with a partner, family member, or pet may impact our sleep health. "The research opens a new avenue of research and insight into how the quality of sleep can be impacted.

As the number of studies present in this field are lower than in others, more data is needed in order to draw a conclusion. Meanwhile, there are concerns about the welfare of sleep-deprived NHS staff.

Health experts are calling for doctors and nurses to be allowed 20-minute power naps during night shifts. This comes amidst reports of doctors and nurses having accidents while travelling home due to sleep deprivation.

Nancy Redfern, consultant anaesthetist at Newcastle Hospital, said: "When fatigue sets in, we in the medical and nursing team are less empathetic with patients and colleagues, vigilance becomes more variable, and logical reasoning is affected, making it hard for us to calculate, for example, the correct dose of drugs a patient might need. "Persistent sleep deprivation can have serious consequences for those in any profession; for those in health it can have potentially fatal consequences.