How you and your partner sleep could say something about your relationship

Whether you're spooners or not could signal how happy you are

If you sleep tangled up, you're probably infatuated (Rex Features)

If you share a bed with your significant other, you probably already have a set routine when it comes to bedtime. You’ll each have your own particular side of the bed, pyjama arrangements and who’s in charge of setting the morning alarm.

But how you snuggle up in your duvet could suggest more about your relationship than you might think.

Back-to-back, with no touching

Corrine Sweet, a relationship psychologist who undertook a study on behalf of bed specialists Dream, says that the 27% of couples surveyed who sleep with their backs to each other and don’t touch during the night are “connected and secure in themselves, this position shows both closeness and independence in the relationship.”

All tangled up

If partners sleep with their bodies tangled up together, it’s a sign that they are still very much in the honeymoon phase.

Only around 2% of couples sleep this way and Ms Sweet says the set-up is “romantic and very intimate, this position also shows a lack of independence from each other.”

Generally touching

Research carried out by University of Hertfordshire Professor Richard Wiseman showed that 94% couples whose bodies touched in one way or another were happy in their relationship, while only 68% of couples who didn't touch identified as having a happy relationship.

Spread eagle

If a partner likes to spread out as they bed down for the night, it might be time to have a serious think about your relationship. According to Ms Sweet, it’s a signal of a dominating relationship where “one partner dominates the space, while the other takes a secondary role.”

Pillow talk

One of the more unusual sleeping positions is in fact couples who sleep facing each other but not touching. Only 3% of couples lie in this way and Ms Sweet says it could be an indicator of an emotionally demanding relationship: “This position shows a need for intimacy and close communication.”