Gadgets driving couples to sleep separately

Homes today are filled with increasing numbers of high-tech gadgets, from smart phones and computers to state-of-the-art TV and audio systems. But a new study has found that these have actually become bedroom bugs.

A team of researchers in Britain has found that the high-tech gadgets are forcing millions of couples to sleep apart with the bedroom becoming a communications hub rather than a place for sleep.

"Busy night-time routines are driving couples' bedtimes and even their bedrooms apart," the British media quoted Jessica Alexander of the Sleep Council, which carried out the study, as saying.

In their study, the researchers surveyed 1,400 people in Britain between February 27 and March 3.

They found that one in ten couples sleep in different beds every night while a quarter admit to doing so on a daily basis; four in ten people go to bed at a different time to

their partner.

More than one in five people (22 per cent) now use their mobile phone or Blackberry over the traditional alarm clock, the study revealed.

One in three people are happy to chat on the phone, send and receive text messages or answer e-mails while tucked up in bed and 20 per cent have checked social networking sites like Facebook, played computer games or listened to Mp3 players between the sheets.

In a sign of the times, 22 per cent of those surveyed said charging electrical appliances is the last thing they do before bed compared to ten per cent using their last moments awake to say a prayer.

The research also found that many people ignore advice on drinks to avoid at bedtime. While water is the most popular drink among a third of those questioned, many others admit to drinking coffee, alcohol or sugary drinks.

However, some things about bedtime do not change -- pyjamas remain the most popular bedtime apparel among women, while men are almost twice as likely as women to go to bed naked.

"Our survey results provide a pretty accurate snapshot of our lives today. It also shows more than half of us (52 per cent) regularly feel so tired at work that we would like to go

home, with one in eight people feeling that way three or four times a week," Alexander was quoted as saying.