‘His snoring would make me really angry’: can sleeping apart help a relationship?

Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford, says better sleep will make both partners happier. Photograph: Nastasic/Getty Images

For the partners of chronic snorers, sleep can prove elusive, no matter how many foam earplugs you test out – but sleeping separately may seem like a last resort for a relationship.

However, a leading sleep scientist has advised couples dealing with this issue to see having different bedrooms as the “beginning of a new relationship”.