51-year-old Cameron Diaz has been with her dearly beloved since 2015, and in that time she believes she’s come up with a solution to relationship and sleep problems in one go. Diaz believes couples should have separate bedrooms and society should normalize this practice for those interested.
Diaz has had a series of widely publicized courtships over the years, which did not go beyond the extent of boyfriend and girlfriend. She was introduced to her husband, guitarist Benji Madden, in 2014, ten months before they got married at her home in Beverly Hills. As far as relationship practices go, her idea for separate bedrooms has some precedence around the country; here’s why.
Cameron Diaz outlines her plan for separate bedrooms between couples
Diaz sat down for an interview with the Lipstick on the Rim podcast this month, hosted by Molly Sims and Emese Gormley, and shared her hope that society further encourages the idea of separate bedrooms for couples. “We should normalize separate bedrooms,” she asserted.
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“To me, I would literally — I have my house, you have yours,” she went on. “We have the family house in the middle. I will go and sleep in my room. You go sleep in your room. I’m fine. And we have the bedroom in the middle that we can convene in for our relations.”
Her suggestion came after one of the women shared that her husband snores in the bedroom. One of the podcast attendees noted that such a proposal might be considered controversial, to which Diaz nonchalantly replied, “I’ve already said it.”
Where is this advice followed?
The concept of couples having separate bedrooms already isn’t a new one in the U.S. Old sitcoms always had couples at the very least in separate beds, but people still use separate rooms today. A survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine shows that over a third of Americans sometimes or consistently sleep in a separate bedroom from their partner.
Echoing Diaz’s point, Dr. Erin Flynn-Evans, a consultant to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, noted, “Studies demonstrate that when one bed partner has a sleep disorder it can negatively affect the other sleeper. For example, bed partners tend to wake up at the same time when one has insomnia. Similarly, when bed partners differ in chronotype, like when one is a night owl the other is an early bird, these differing sleep preferences can negatively impact both partners’ sleep.”
Allegheny Health Network sleep specialist Dr. Daniel Shade listed snoring, television use, shifting around, an early departure for work, bathroom trips, and restless movement as other possible factors that disrupt a partner’s sleep.
Diaz notes that she herself does not actually use this advice these days with Benji. “By the way, I don’t feel that way now because my husband is so wonderful,” she added. “I had said that before I got married.”
