Submitted by Shannon on 23rd July, 06:15PM

Waking up next to someone you did not really mean to sleep with can make you feel pretty stupid.

But few will have considered the possibility that sharing a bed could actually make you dumber ' especially if you are a man.

Spending the night in the same bed as someone else ' even without sex ' disturbs sleep quality, a study found.

Spending the night in the same bed as someone else disturbs sleep quality

Researchers assessed sleeping patterns in eight unmarried, childless couples after ten nights together and ten apart.

They found lack of sleep made the men more stressed and reduced their ability to perform simple cognitive tests the next day.

However, women's stress levels and mental scores did not suffer so badly, New Scientist reported.

Men thought they slept better with a partner but women believed the opposite.

But both sexes actually had more disturbed sleep, with or without sex.

Women apparently slept more deeply than men, and claimed to be more refreshed than the amount of rest they experienced should have allowed.

Sleeping with someone also affected dream recall, with women remembering more after sleeping alone and men recalling their dreams best after sex, the Austrian researchers found.

Do you sleep better when your bed is empty?