Don’t worry if your partner’s snoring forces you to sleep in different rooms…

When your partner’s snoring gets so bad that you have to sleep in separate beds, it can feel like admitting that the best days of your marriage are behind you.

But one professor has suggested that couples should view the move into different rooms as the exciting “beginning of a new relationship.”

In fact, Russell Foster says ditching the earplugs in favor of separate bedrooms will improve sleep quality and therefore make couples happier.

The professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford told the Hay Festival: ‘Earplugs don’t work. So, if it’s just snoring, what do you do?

‘Well, you sleep in a different place. So many people say “I slept with my partner for 50 years, it’s the end of our relationship”.

‘No, that’s not it. It’s the start of a new relationship where ideally both of you would be happier, more responsive to each other, less impulsive, less irritable, so I don’t think you should be afraid of sleeping in an alternate sleeping space if you have one. ‘

Professor Foster warned that it’s important to make sure snorers don’t have obstructive sleep apnea – which is one of the most common causes of snoring and can pose a danger if left untreated.

He said: ‘The musculature of the throat collapses and you experience a sensation of breathing [before] the brain realizes it’s out of oxygen, so you sort of stop breathing and then you have these great intakes.

‘That huge rise in blood pressure can be very damaging to the small blood vessels of the eye and brain, so make sure it isn’t,’ Professor Foster urged.

While promoting his book on sleep and health, he also criticized “bullshit” sleep apps that he said can make people anxious about sleep.