More Couples Sleep in Separate Beds

A growing number of married couples are sleeping in separate beds to ensure a good night's sleep, untroubled by each other's snoring and other disruptive habits.

Advertisement

Retailers are swiftly catching on to the trend, and Korean furniture makers like Hanssem, Casamia and Iloom introduced separable beds last year. They not only split in two on demand, but the mattresses can be raised or lowered to deal with snoring spouses or alleviate swollen legs.

Iloom said sales of these beds doubled over the last two months, while Hanssem saw sales rise 30 percent. "Our target customers were middle-aged couples, but a lot of newlywed couples also bought the beds", says Kim Tae-eun at Iloom.

Hanssem used to sell its single beds mostly to students, but now a growing number of married couples are opting to buy two single beds, so now there is a swish leather version for older people available.

Property developers are also altering their designs to suit the needs of couples who want some time apart from each other. Small and mid-sized apartments with private dressing rooms, studies and terraces are all the rage these days, even at the expense of smaller living and sleeping spaces.

The changes reflect a trend among younger people who have started to question traditional perceptions of married life and explore fresh options of staying comfortable together.

Marriage counsellor Park Sung-deok is in two minds. "More consideration between spouses because of an increased awareness of the need for their own space is more important than splitting up beds", he says.