Sharing your bed apparently can make you less intelligent. However, only if you are a man, so say scientists .
When men sleep in the same bed as someone else seemingly their sleep patterns are disturbed, whether they have made love or not, new research highlights.
Men also perform worse in mental agility tests the following day.
Women however do not suffer from the same problem. Their sleep is disturbed should they share a bed, however, they do have a better quality rest when they eventually fall asleep. Their brain power appears undiminished.
It would therefore appear that should a man have an important day ahead then he would be best off sharing the spare room rather than sleeping in the marital bed.
The recent research, which the New Scientist magazine features, involved eight unmarried childless couples in their early twenties.
10 nights were spent sleeping apart and 10 together. He then monitored their sleeping patterns at night with wrist monitors and sleep diaries.
The following day all the participants had mental ability or 'cognitive' tests.
Even with no sex, all participants had disturbed sleep when sharing a bed rather than when alone. However, the effects on the brain only seemed to affect the men.
Lack of sleep leads to increased stress hormone levels in men, thus reducing their ability to carry out simple cognitive tests the following day.
