Cameron Diaz says long-term couples sleeping in separate bedrooms – or even different houses – should be “normalised”.
The 51-year-old actress made the comments on the Lipstick On The Rim podcast as hosts Molly Sims and Emese Gormley discussed their partners’ snoring.
“We should normalise separate bedrooms,” Diaz said.
“I would literally – I have my house, you have yours. 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, you know, our relations.”
She added: “By the way, I don’t feel that way now because my husband is so wonderful. I said that before I got married.”
Diaz has been married to Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden since 2015 after they reportedly started dating in 2014.
The couple have a daughter Raddix who was born in December 2019.
Diaz’s husband Benji Madden. Pic: AP
Experts have said that relationships can benefit from separation at bedtime.
Rather than a sign you’re giving up, shifting to the spare room to cope with snoring could mark the “beginning of a new relationship”, said Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
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Speaking on the science of good sleep at the Hay Festival, Prof Foster said he was often approached by people who say: “What can I do? Earplugs don’t work”.
He said: “If it’s just snoring, what do you do? Well, you sleep in another place. So many people say, ‘I slept with my partner for 50 years, it’s the end of our relationship’.
“No, it isn’t. It’s the beginning of a new relationship where both of you ideally would be happier, more responsive to each other, less impulsive, less irritable, so I don’t think you should be afraid to sleep in an alternative sleeping space if you have one.”