What it means to sleep together.

• Position: Sleeping together increases the intimacy between the couple

Snoring, spooning, stealing the sheets, and sleeping in the nude--for the millions of people who share a bed with a partner, there are a number of challenges and benefits to "sleeping together."

"Sharing a bed is a complicated, changing, and often challenging experience," notes Paul Rosenblatt, professor of social science and author of Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing. For many couples, their time chatting in bed is the most time they have to talk with each other on a daily basis and that talk can be crucially important to their relationship, Rosenblatt maintains. "Lots of couples say that, if they can both stay awake, they talk for a few minutes each night."

Many couples explained to Rosenblatt how important sleeping in the same bed is to them, because it is a time for intimacy, pleasure, and feeling comfortable together. During the time before drifting off to sleep, couples catch up on what's going on with one another, plan, make decisions, deal with disagreements, and solve problems. "If couples don't have this time in bed, then they're in trouble.

"Many of the couples interviewed said they would get a better night's sleep apart, but they don't want to sleep apart because of the intimacy of sharing a bed, the security, and the sense of belonging together."

One partner's health problems, snoring, or work tensions can impact the other's sleeping. Two people differ in hundreds of...