- Cameron Diaz said her ideal sleeping arrangement used to be sleeping separately from her partner.
- Diaz said on a recent podcast, “Literally, I have my house. You have yours.”
- She said she wanted to normalize couples sleeping separately.
The actor Cameron Diaz has a strong opinion when it comes to sleeping with your partner: “We should normalize separate bedrooms.”
“To me, I would literally, like — I have my house. You have yours. We have the family house in the middle,” Diaz, who married the Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden in 2015, said on an episode of the podcast Lipstick on the Rim earlier this week.
“I will go and sleep in my room,” she told the hosts, Molly Sims and Emese Gormley. “You go sleep in your room. I’m fine.”
“And we have the bedroom in the middle that we can convene in for our relations,” she added.
Diaz said she held this belief before marrying Madden.
“By the way, I don’t feel that way now because my husband is so wonderful,” she said. “I said that before I got married.”
Sleeping in separate beds may have some benefits
A survey earlier this year from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine indicated that more than one-third of American couples slept in separate beds on occasion or consistently.
And relationship experts previously told Business Insider that sleeping in separate beds could be good for a couple, especially if you’re trying to reignite a spark or need some space from your partner.
“Romantic relationships thrive when there is a healthy respect for the individuality of each partner,” Katie Bingner, a licensed counselor who’s a communication coach, preciously told BI. “Having your own space can help you and your partner feel safe, free, and seen as individuals.”
Bingner said it could, however, result in decreased intimacy for couples and create emotional distance.
Diaz isn’t the first celebrity to be open about their support for sleeping in separate beds.
The television host Carson Daly, who married Siri Pinter in 2015, said last year that a “sleep divorce” was the “best thing” for his marriage.
“We both, admittedly, slept better apart,” he said during a “Today” show segment in June 2022.
Daly said he and Pinter first had trouble sleeping together when Pinter was pregnant with their fourth child and that his sleep apnea, which can cause snoring, didn’t help.
“We woke up, and we just shook hands like, ‘I love you, but it’s time to sleep divorce. It’ll be the best thing for all of us,'” Daly told People in 2020.