“People are losing sleep. They are waking each other up, and there is this resentment that begins to build in a relationship,” she says. “If you don’t address that, obviously your relationship is going to suffer, your work suffers. It’s this cascade.”

However, even if the switch to two beds may be the best solution, many couples still fear the night-time split, Lankler says.

Asking a couple whether they would consider separate beds can cause a sort of “Catch-22” mentality: sharing a bed might mean disrupted sleep, while sleeping in separate beds could kill intimacy, she says.

“There’s a very healthy way to do it that enhances communication and enhances freedom in the relationship,” she says. “I love the fact that snoring, like everything else in life, is an opportunity to go deeper into love.”

From Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip to reports that US President Donald Trump and Melania Trump sleep separately, the decision to part at bedtime doesn’t mean couples are in trouble, especially if they implement strategies to keep the relationship strong.

“The ones that work out very well are the ones that have done the work,” Lankler says.

However, just because sleeping separately can help with restfulness and communication, it’s not for everyone, says Sophie Jacobi-Parisi, a New York lawyer at Warshaw Burstein who practices matrimonial and family law.

“It’s very easy to be ‘ships in the night’ when you’re trying to live and work and raise kids,” Jacobi-Parisi says. “If you don’t have any point of contact with your spouse … it’s very easy to lose any sort of sense that you are more than just a co-parenting, working team.”

For couples that choose to sleep separately but don’t have a conversation around why they are making the change, it can be another step in the path toward divorce, she adds.

In some cases she sees, a couple may say they’re sleeping separately for a specific reason – a child who can’t sleep or a snoring problem – but then stay in two beds without ever revisiting why.

Sleeping together when it isn’t working can also be a detriment, she says.

In one case she encountered, a couple shared a bed through their entire divorce proceedings in court. This can be challenging for children, who will get mixed signals.

However, Jacobi-Parisi says parents know their children best and must make a decision that’s specific to them and how they’ll react. Being honest with children about the decision is just as important as with a spouse, she adds.

A couple’s sex life won’t be ruined by sleeping apart any more than it would be by a television in a shared bedroom, Lankler says.

In fact, sleeping in separate beds can create the opportunity to be more intentional about having a healthy sex life, she says. It can alleviate some of the pressure felt to be intimate when a bed is shared, too.

“You actually get to carve out time,” Lankler says. “You get to do it in a way that is intended and not sort of expected.”

Jacobi-Parisi agrees, saying a concerted effort is needed not only for intimacy but also things like date night.