[pzumk]

I’ve always been a pretty good sleeper. I’ve been going to bed at 22:00, fell asleep at 22:05, and woke up at 5:45 after sleeping like a rock.

When my gf and I moved together, this changed.

I still tried to go to bed at 22:00 but sometimes it was an hour later or so. My gf goes to bed between 23:00 and 00:00, which always woke me up. She also needed to go to the toilet once at night, which woke me up again.

But to be fair, when I got up in the morning she was waking up too because she could hear me showering.

When she was working a few hundred kilometres away for a month I noticed how much better my sleep was. That’s when I bought a second bed and moved to our guest room on work-days. Well, sometimes we want to cuddle and fall asleep together, but I’d say 9/10 work-days we’re sleeping in separate beds and it’s g r e a t.

[nkrisc]

Nothing wrong with a separate bed if that's what works for you. Some folks just don't really have compatible sleep schedules/habits, while otherwise being compatible. It's not like you have to lock the doors and stay apart all night.

[karatestomp]

Separate beds FTW. Ideally in separate rooms in case winding-down-to-sleep routines are significantly different, in timing or form.

[tinyhouse]

An alternative would be using ear plugs and eye shade.

[MikeTheGreat]

Those help with light and noise issues, but if someone gets into/out of the bed it'll jostle the bed enough that it might still wake one up.