RANDY Robinson of Simi Valley always knew that he snored, but he had no idea how heavily until he married Angel three years ago. "It was getting so bad that she either had to sleep with earplugs or outside on the couch," he says.
For her part, Angel didn't complain. She just stuck earplugs in and sometimes slept in the living room. Then she started waking up with bruises from his involuntary, nighttime kicks.
The Robinsons are hardly alone. A survey of American couples last year by the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit partially underwritten by sleep-products companies, found that one in four people complains of a partner interfering with a good night's rest.
The most common gripe, not surprisingly, is snoring. But tossing and turning ranks up there too, as do blanket stealing, twitching, teeth gnashing and monopolizing the mattress. She's cold when he's warm. She prefers a soft mattress, but he likes it firm. No wonder more than 20% of the survey respondents indicated that they have tried sleeping apart to ensure a restful night.
And no wonder a whole industry has sprung up in response to their problems, churning out an increasing number of products -- adjustable mattresses, "dual-comfort" linens, even a pillow that discourages prospective space hogs from encroaching onto their mate's turf. The express purpose for these inventions: establishing detente for couples mired in a battle of the bed.
Since the sleep industry started to roll out merchandise targeting less-than-rested couples like the Robinsons, business has boomed, says Dany Sfeir, senior vice president of memory-foam mattress maker Tempur-Pedic. He says the 14-year-old company has logged a 45% rise in sales since 1998.
"We believe that people spend over $14 billion annually on retail sleep products," Sfeir says, adding that couples with clashing bed preferences are driving a king-sized portion of the sales.
Among the best known products is Select Comfort's Sleep Number bed, which comes with remote controls that inflate and deflate air chambers on both sides. Each partner can choose a number between zero and 100 to represent his or her firmness preference.
"When it comes to sleep, no two people are alike," says Select Comfort's Pete Bils, whose fanciful title is senior director of sleep innovation. "They're like snowflakes."
