Is this the end of happiness as I know it?
Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland — the Nordic countries consistently rank as some of the happiest places on earth. Top 4 in the World Happiness Report. Year after year.
Which begs the question: what do these people know that we don’t?
Is it the social safety nets? Work-life balance? The cozy hygge lifestyle? The saunas? Sure, maybe. Any or all of these could be the secret to happiness.
But we think we’ve isolated the actual reason… They sleep under separate duvets. It’s called the Scandinavian Sleep Method, but in these countries, it’s just how you make a bed. When a Swedish influencer TikToked about it in 2023, millions of sleep-deprived couples realized there was a better way.
Here in North America, we took a more dramatic approach… Sleep Divorce. I mean, nobody’s filing papers or dividing assets. Sleep divorce is just couples deciding to sleep in separate beds, or separate rooms, or on different schedules. Whatever it takes to get real, restorative sleep, and then show up for each other during the day.
17% of coupled Canadians are already doing it,38% have considered it, and honestly? That number is probably higher, but the rest of us are just too polite to admit that we’ve been fantasizing about uninterrupted sleep.
Maybe we just need a better way to think about it? Not as sleep divorce, but rather, as Dr Woganee Filate coined it, a Shared Sleep Action Plan.
Truth is, better sleep means better mood, less resentment, and more energy for the relationship during waking hours. Chronically disrupted sleep doesn’t just make you tired. It quietly chips away at the rest of your life too.
At the end of the night, this isn’t about duvets or divorce or even the Danes. It’s about figuring out what works for you and your partner. It’s about choosing rest without losing connection.
So sleep well, and we’ll see you next Thursday, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
xoxo, Mikelle & Michelle
P.S. — Jason thinks we’re writing this newsletter because Michelle wants a new duvet. He’s not wrong. But also, he’s been hogging the blankets for years, so really, this is just journalism.
