Cameron Diaz says we should ‘normalize’ married couples sleeping in separate bedrooms

Cameron Diaz has spoken out about the stigma surrounding married couples sleeping in separate bedrooms.

If you hadn't gotten enough of seeing Cameron Diaz talking about relationship issues in your binge-watching of Christmas movies - which should obviously include The Holiday - then fear not, because the actor appeared as a guest on yesterday's episode (19 December) of Molly Sims' podcast Lipstick on the Rim.

Diaz - who recently hit out at rumors Jamie Foxx led to her quit acting - sat down with her wine brand business partner Katherine Power, alongside Sims and fellow podcast host Emese Gormley to discuss what it means to live a healthy lifestyle - including how people go about their marriages and relationships.

One question which came up in the podcast was whether it's best to sleep in the same bedroom - or bed - as your partner, or to move down the hall.

It's a choice which has been heavily debated online, many viewing the separate bedrooms as a sign of a lack of intimacy and emotional distance, but others seeing it as actually more beneficial, giving you a better night's sleep and subsequently easing relations.

But what does Diaz think?

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Well, Diaz is currently married to Good Charlotte musician Benji Madden and thinks it's important to 'normalize separate bedrooms'.

On the podcast, Diaz says: "To me, I would literally, I have my house, you have yours. We have the family house in the middle. I will go and sleep in my room. 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."

Although she adds: "I don’t feel that way now because my husband is so wonderful. I said that before I got married."

And while Diaz may not choose to sleep in a different bed or room than her husband, a 2012 survey by the Better Sleep Council and 2017 survey from the National Sleep Foundation revealed one in four couples do choose to separate when it comes to their sleep.

So, what do the experts say?

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Well, Choosing Therapy's Jamesalina M Tyus explains sleeping separately can actually be a 'life saver' in relationships.

Potential benefits include 'increased feelings of being rested, increased time with self, increased bed space, undisturbed sleep cycles, increased longing for intimacy and sex [and] less fighting about sleep differences'.

However, Tyus notes there are similarly some disadvantages which come with parting ways in the bedroom, whether it be the potential for 'decreased quality of one-on-one time, feelings of abandonment, loss of connection, increased conflict' or 'the potential to grow apart'.

Ultimately, it's something each couple needs to figure out for themselves, but either way, as Diaz says, it shouldn't be so stigmatised.