History Main / SleepingSingle

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* WebComic/BugMartini discusses this [[http://www.bugmartini.com/comic/sleeping-with-the-enemy/ trope]].

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Deconstructed in this Cracked.com [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19230_the-5-least-romantic-keys-to-happy-relationship.html article]], which argues that couples who sleep separately tend to be happier, since they're less likely to disrupt each other's sleep.
[[/folder]]

-->'''Lady Mary''': I hope you know that really smart people sleep in separate rooms.\\
'''Lord Grantham''': I always keep the dressing room bed made up so I at least pretend we sleep in separate rooms. Isn't that enough? \\
'''Lady Mary''': No. Never mind.

* Played with on ''Series/FatherTed'' – Ted and Dougal have twin beds in the same room, Justified due to them not being a couple, meaning it would be very wierd (even by the shows standards) if they shared a bed.

* ''Series/WandaVision'': [[Recap/WandaVisionEpisode2DontTouchThatDial "Don't Touch That Dial"]], a GenreThrowback to 60s sitcoms, opens with Wanda and Vision sleeping in single beds. Wanda pulls them together with her magic after they get scared by a loud banging noise from outside. They quickly decide they prefer it this way and [[SexyDiscretionShot pull the covers over their heads]]. This seems to be playing on the transition from the fifties ''Series/ILoveLucy''-like setting of the first episode into a fairly direct pastiche of ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' (as noted above, one the earliest sitcoms to defy the trope.)
* ''Series/YoGabbaGabba'': In "Sleep," it is shown the gang sleeps in their own realms in their beds, but in "Doctor," Toodee sleeps in Muno's.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1967'' depicted Reed and Sue sleeping in separate beds in the episode "The Terrible Tribunal" in spite of them being married.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' Dale and Nancy sleep in separate beds while she was having an affair.
** Hank and Peggy's bed is actually two beds pushed together. Hank pulls his away in one episode because he can't stand the smell of Peggy's hair.
*** Hank later explains to Bobby that they have it that way because Peggy likes her mattress firm and he likes his extra firm.
--->'''Hank''': I guess it's true, opposites attract.
* One of the latest straight playings (in the puritan way) is the 90's WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyT_Xc8DVng Hansel and Gretel]]'', where Mickey and Minnie don't sleep in the same bed, even though there's only one bed and this means Mickey must sleep in an armchair.

* It's [[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/09/12/lw.sleep.alone.when.married/ not]] [[http://www.divinecaroline.com/22074/74191-couples-sleep-separate-beds unheard]] [[http://zeldalily.com/index.php/2010/07/more-american-couples-sleeping-in-separate-beds/ of]] for happily married couples to sleep in separate beds or even separate rooms if their sleep habits aren't compatible or if there are medical circumstances (back problems, allergies or breathing problems, for example.) This doesn't mean they don't enjoy "together time" when the mood strikes.
* Heck, in some places, the husband and the wife don't even share a ''room''! (Most commonly with kings, who had to worry about things like assassination attempts. The Emperor of China eventually took to having his concubines stripped naked and wrapped up in a blanket to be delivered to his chambers for pleasure.)
** Many upper-class homes, given their large amount of space, do often have separate bedrooms for Him and for Her.

* Creator/PGWodehouse and his wife Ethel Wayman appear to have had their own rooms throughout much of their marriage. Although Wodehouse may have been {{Asexual}} as well as sterile due to a case of mumps in his youth, they were HappilyMarried for sixty years until Wodehouse's death in 1975.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Rory and Amy in early series 6, as after the TARDIS shenanigans result in their bedroom being deleted, they tell the Doctor that when he has the TARDIS create a new one, leave out the bunk bed.
--->'''The Doctor:''' But bunk beds are cool! It's a ''bed'' with a ''ladder''!
** They may have just been using one of the beds together and wanted a single large bed for greater comfort. After all, Amy and Rory still managed to [[spoiler:conceive a child]] while in the TARDIS. (When fans asked how and when, Creator/StevenMoffat and Creator/NeilGaiman [[WordOfGod both tweeted]] -- accidentally at the same time, and completely by coincidence -- "[[WallBangHer on the ladder]]".)

* ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'': While we never see them sleeping, Lain's parents have separate beds. This comes off as rather strange given how oddly physical they seem together around the house. It serves as one of the first clues that something is wrong with Lain's family structure.

* ''[[Anime/{{Iczer}} Fight! Iczer-One]]'', an anime from the late 1980s, provides an extremely unusual example. Nagase's parents seem to have separate beds. This is a pretty hardcore {{yuri}} anime we are talking about.
* ''Manga/BrokenBlade'': King Hodr and Queen Sigyn do not even sleep in the same room. Sigyn barely even sleeps in her own room, sometimes falling asleep while working. The reason is that Sigyn, despite that Hodr clearly loves her, [[NoSparks does not have any romantic interest in her husband]]. They don't have any children.

* ''Film/TheThinMan'', which is from the '30s, though they imply a lot in dialogue anyway. And there was that [[BabiesEverAfter time on the train]].

** Averted in Hitchcock's ''Film/{{Mr and Mrs Smith|1941}}'', where the couple's bedroom shows only one bed.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' where it crops up in Audrey's sitcom-inspired fantasies about married life.
* The father Lalit and his wife start ''Film/MonsoonWedding'' like this, but eventually they wind up curled up together in one of the twin beds just holding one another.
* Single beds silliness from the 1952 film, ''Film/TheMarryingKind''.
* The couple in ''Film/{{Seconds}}'' is having single beds which underpins their loveless marriage.

* Gregory and Paula from ''Film/{{Gaslight}}'' are newlyweds however sleep in separate ''rooms'', which is unusual even by Victorian standards. Considering Gregory's [[{{gaslighting}} ulterior measures]] it makes more sense he'd keep her distant.
* This was never mandatory in French cinema, so in ''Film/TheEarringsOfMadameDe'' it obviously emphasizes that while Andre and Louise remain friendly, their marriage is now completely sexless and passionless.
* In ''Film/HMPulhamEsq'' poor Harry is doing this on his honeymoon. While this is an EnforcedTrope, of course, it helps reinforce how Harry has chosen safe, rather dull Kay over his exciting girlfriend [[TomboyishName Marvin]].
* Soundly averted in ''Film/MyReputation'' with Ginna and Cary.
* While not shown, it's mentioned by [[GossipyHens Gretchen Weiners]] in ''Film/MeanGirls'' that [[AlphaBitch Regina]] [[RichBitch George's]] parents are having [[SexlessMarriage marital problems to the point of sleeping in separate beds.]]
* Mark and Fran of Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Film/TheUglyDachsund'' sleep in separate beds despite being married. Possibly for the best since Fran lets their dachshunds sleep on the bed with her.

* In ''Film/TheProwler1951'', John and Susan have two single beds in their bedroom. However, is as much to do with the state of their marriage as it is the Hays code.

* ''Series/ILoveLucy'':
** The series is infamous for this, although the twin beds were actually ''pushed together'' throughout the entire first season. After Ricky and Lucy had a child, the network had a nightstand put between them to "diminish the impact of the suggested sexual history".
** It was actually averted a couple of times. In one strange instance, Fred says that Ethel woke him by not being there "because there was no one poking him in the ribs and telling him to roll over" which pretty much means they needed to be in the same bed. While shortly afterwards ''in the same episode'' they are shown sleeping in twin beds.
** In another episode, both Fred and Ethel ''and'' Lucy and Ricky are briefly depicted as sharing a double bed in a motel that they stop at on their way to Hollywood. However, neither couple actually gets to sleep because a train keeps going by and moving the bed across the floor.

* In the ChainedHeat episode of ''Series/HeyDude'', the handcuffed Ted and Brad spend an uncomfortable night in ''bunk beds'' when you would think a double-bed would be the best choice. The best choice anywhere but TV land.

* Ned and Chuck from ''Series/PushingDaisies'' have to sleep in twin beds, as Chuck would die by touching Ned, but it also helps with the general [[TheFifties retro feel]] of the show. Later on, they put the beds together separated by a plastic sheet, with an inserted arm-glove for hugging.
* Lampooned in the ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' episode "The Fifties Show", which satirizes various old sitcoms.
-->'''Dan:''' What do you say tonight we push our twin beds together and...?\\
'''Roseanne:''' Stop, the kids will hear you!

* One episode of ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' had Hyacinth get a flat in a former big country house as a holiday home. Although they slept in the same bed at home, in the flat they had twin beds; Hyacinth implied they're now too old to be getting up to anything which would require a double.
* In a ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' episode Al makes separate beds because he hates sharing the bed with Peg.
* In perhaps a parody of this trope, Bree and Orson are shown in a hotel room with twin beds in one episode of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', despite the fact that they're there on their ''honeymoon''.
* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Frank and Estelle Costanza have separate beds. But as Frank explains, it's because Estelle has the "jimmy arms" and this was the only way either of them would get any sleep.

* Done as a throwaway gag on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. Eliot's WASP-ish emotionally distant father comes to visit, and says that her mother is having the bedroom redecorated... but he's keeping his the same.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Rory and Amy in early series 6, as after the TARDIS shenanigans result in their bedroom being deleted, they tell the Doctor that when he has the TARDIS create a new one, leave out the bunk bed.
--->'''The Doctor:''' But bunk beds are cool! It's a ''bed'' with a ''ladder''!
** They may have just been using one of the beds together and wanted a single large bed for greater comfort. After all, Amy and Rory still managed to [[spoiler:conceive a child]] while in the TARDIS. (When fans asked how and when, Creator/StevenMoffat and Creator/NeilGaiman [[WordOfGod both tweeted]] -- accidentally at the same time, and completely by coincidence -- "[[WallBangHer on the ladder]]".)
* Francis and Elizabeth Urquhart in the ''Series/HouseOfCardsUK'' trilogy. They seemed to have a very open marriage.
* Frank and Claire Underwood in the American version of ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS'' are like this too.

* ''Series/YoGabbaGabba'': In "Sleep," it is shown the gang sleeps in their own realms in their beds, but in "Doctor," Toodee sleeps in Muno's.
* Played with on ''Series/FatherTed'' – Ted and Dougal have twin beds in the same room, Justified due to them not being a couple, meaning it would be very wierd (even by the shows standards) if they shared a bed.

* Inverted on ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''. When Jemma is stranded on an alien planet and meets an American astronaut who had been there a while, they work together for several weeks before falling in love, and we get a SexyDiscretionShot of them making out before the commercial break. After the break, we see their two cots pushed together, clearly implying that they had sex.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''. Tobias and Lindsey are shown sleeping in two different beds in season 4 after getting a new, oversized house. The trope is used here to show their failed marriage.
* Zig-zagged in ''Series/GreenAcres'' – The Douglases had no furniture when they first moved into Green Acres and for a short time temporarily rented Mr. Haney's single cots. A little later, Lisa brings over their lavish double bed.
* The Howells slept single on ''Series/GilligansIsland''.
* Averted by Lord and Lady Grantham on ''Series/DowntonAbbey''. As British aristocrats of their day and master and mistress of a great house, they would be expected to not only sleep in separate beds but in separate rooms. And technically, they do have separate rooms with separate beds—it’s just that Lord Grantham only uses his bedroom to change and then goes to Lady Grantham’s room to sleep in their common bed. The only time his bed gets any use is when she exiles him from hers (or on one occasion, he feels he has shamed himself and exiles himself), or when Lady Grantham is ill. His daughter gives him cheek about it in Series 1:
-->'''Lady Mary''': I hope you know that really smart people sleep in separate rooms.\\
'''Lord Grantham''': I always keep the dressing room bed made up so I at least pretend we sleep in separate rooms. Isn't that enough? \\
'''Lady Mary''': No. Never mind.
** (Lady Mary, when she did marry years later, never did sleep separate from her husband.)
* ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'': Midge Maisel's parents Abe and Rose Weissman sleep in twin beds. This makes sense because they are Jewish couple probably born around 1900-1910; Jewish law requires men not to touch any menstruating woman, not even his wife, so for observant Jews of that generation (and even Orthodox Jews today), the obvious solution is separate beds (the alternative being one spouse or the other being ExiledToTheCouch for a week to ten days a month). This does not mean a lack of intimacy; Midge gets a lot of mileage in her comedy act from her realization at the age of 26 that the scraping sounds she thought were a ghost as a child were actually her parents moving their beds together/apart.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E4TheManWithThePower The Man With the Power]]", Dean Radcliffe and his wife Emily sleep in separate beds.
* On ''Series/CitizenKhan'', Mr. and Mrs. Khan sleep in separate beds. Mr. Khan reacts in shock when he sees Mrs. Khan pushing their beds together in the middle of the day and shrinks back in fear when she insists he fulfill his "husbandly duties". Turns out she just wanted him to fix the plumbing in their room and moving the beds provided easier access to the pipes.
* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Jonathan and Nancy sleep in a motel room on their way out to visit Murray Bauman. They take a double with twin beds, due to their [[UnresolvedSexualTension denial of their increasing feelings towards each other]].
* On ''Series/GameOfThrones'', King Robert and Queen Cersei have separate bedchambers due to their loveless marriage.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "City At The Edge Of The World", an ActionGirl takes a fancy to Vila, takes off her gunbelt and puts her arms around him. Next time we see them, they're lying on separate beds [[RightThroughHisPants fully clothed]], [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vila_after_7243.jpg bathing in the afterglow.]]

* ''Literature/TheTwits'', and it isn't hard to see why.

* ''Literature/FireAndBlood:'' King Viserys I and Queen Allicent Hightower not only slept in separate bedrooms, but her bedroom was on an entirely separate ''floor'' from his. Says a lot about their marriage... and maybe his very sudden death. Then again, Viserys was overweight and in seriously bad health. Not the sort of person you'd want to share a bed with (or possibly be ''able'' to share a bed with).

* Mars' grandparents in ''VideoGame/ShiningWisdom'' sleep in separate beds, more importantly however is that they sleep in the kitchen to allow Mars the whole upstairs as his bedroom.
* Judging by the houses in the Ruins and New Home in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', it seems as if [[spoiler: Toriel and Asgore]] not only slept in separate beds, ''but also separate bedrooms''. One of the videos in [[spoiler: the True Lab]] features them talking at night, with the implication that [[spoiler: Toriel]] came into [[spoiler: Asgore’s]] bedroom to film his reactions to her puns, as he tells her to "Go back to bed" at first, then she says "I'm going back to bed" after he makes a pun himself.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': Dialogue in Act IV can reveal that Lord Linder Kemm has grown distant from his wife and sleeps separately from her. It's revealed to be because [[spoiler:he's [[MoleInCharge joined forces]] with the GreaterScopeVillain and now uses a HumanDisguise to hide that he's become undead.]]

* One of the latest straight playings (in the puritan way) is the 90's WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyT_Xc8DVng Hansel and Gretel]]'', where Mickey and Minnie don't sleep in the same bed, even though there's only one bed and this means Mickey must sleep in an armchair.

* One of the first clues that Luann and Kirk Van Houten on ''TheSimpsons'' might have a troubled marriage was Kirk's proposal to "push the twin beds together" after he procured a sex tonic. Later seasons saw them get divorced, though as of present they're back together.

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'':
** Not only do Orel's parents have separate beds, but there is a privacy screen between them.
** Doughy's parents have separate rooms, though this is more because they're mentally still teenagers -- Kim's bedroom, which we do see, is still decorated like a high school girl's. It should also be noted, this has no bearing on their sex lives, as they regularly bribe Doughy with money to leave the house so they can be alone.

* On ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Edd's parents' bedroom ("please leave or I'll have to call an attorney!") is arranged like this. No wonder the kid's so [[NeatFreak uptight]]; his parents are as germophobic as he is.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Hassle in the Castle" shows that Cosmo and Wanda sleep in separate beds.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1967'' depicted Reed and Sue sleeping in separate beds in the episode "The Terrible Tribunal" in spite of them being married.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'': Even though King Zog and Queen Oona are married and mentioned to have a sex life, he is shown to sleep in his own separate bed while she sleeps... [[AnOddPlaceToSleep in the ceiling upside down]]. But then again, they are also united in an ArrangedMarriage, so that may be a reason why.

* ''Series/WandaVision'': Episode 2, a GenreThrowback to 60s sitcoms, opens with Wanda and Vision sleeping in single beds. Wanda pulls them together with her magic after they get scared by a loud banging noise from outside. They quickly decide they prefer it this way and [[SexyDiscretionShot pull the covers over their heads]]. This seems to be playing on the transition from the fifties ''Series/ILoveLucy''-like setting of the first episode into a fairly direct pastiche of ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' (as noted above, one the earliest sitcoms to defy the trope.)

* In ''Manga/VictorianRomanceEmma'', the aristocratic couples the maids serve usually have separate bedrooms. [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Manga]], sleeping together every night was not considered proper behavior for a well-bred couple in that era, even if they were HappilyMarried.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', not only do Orel's parents have separate beds, but there is a privacy screen between them.
** Doughy's parents have separate rooms, though this is more because they're mentally still teenagers -- Kim's bedroom, which we do see, is still decorated like a high school girl's. It should also be noted, this has no bearing on their sex lives.

* Creator/PGWodehouse and his wife Ethel Wayman had their own rooms throughout much of their marriage. Although Wodehouse may have been {{Asexual}} as well as sterile due to a case of mumps in his youth, they were HappilyMarried for sixty years until Wodehouse's death in 1975.

* Creator/PGWodehouse and his wife Ethel Wayman had their own rooms throughout much of their marriage. Although Wodehouse may have been {{Asexual}} as well as sterile due to a case of mumps in his youth, they were nonetheless HappilyMarried for sixty years until Wodehouse's death in 1975.

* On ''Series/FawltyTowers'', Basil and Sybil did this, although by then they could have easily shared a bed. They just hate each other.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "City At The Edge Of The World", an ActionGirl takes a fancy to Vila, takes off her gunbelt and puts her arms around him. Next time we see them, they're lying on separate beds [[RightThroughHisPants fully clothed]], [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vila_after_7243.jpg bathing in the afterglow]].

Once upon a time, back in TheThirties and TheForties, UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode foisted very harsh censorship rules upon American filmmakers by the MoralGuardians (the Hays Office was actually created by the studios themselves, in part, because they feared that actual government censorship would be the result of failing to rein things in). One of the "do nots" that weren't to be shown in films under any circumstances was "Any licentious or suggestive nudity." Further down, in what was described as the "be careful" section, was "Man and woman in bed together."

A curious variation appeared where the couple in question was actually shown as owning a bed big enough for two people. In such cases, they would never be lying down in the bed on-screen at the same time. The most "risqué" thing usually seen on-screen was one of them lying down and the other sitting on the edge of the bed. It can be gleamed from this that, in the eyes of the censors at the time, the unwritten rule was apparently that the line between a perfectly innocent talk in the bedroom and a prelude to steamy sexual activity was whether or not someone kept at least one foot off the bed and firmly on the ground at all times.

* Played with on ''Series/FatherTed'' – Ted and Dougal have twin beds in the same room, again for no evident reason other than RuleOfFunny.

* ''Film/TheThinMan'', which is from the '30s, though they [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar get much crap past the radar]] in dialogue anyway. And there was that [[BabiesEverAfter time on the train]].

-->'''The Doctor:''' But bunk beds are cool! It's a ''bed'' with a ''ladder''!

--->'''Lady Mary''': I hope you know that really smart people sleep in separate rooms.
--->'''Lord Grantham''': I always keep the dressing room bed made up so I at least pretend we sleep in separate rooms. Isn't that enough?
--->'''Lady Mary''': No. Never mind.

* ''Series/WandaVision'' episode 2, a GenreThrowback to 60s sitcoms, opens with a gag where the married title characters combine their separate beds together (and [[SexyDiscretionShot have some fun under the covers]]) because they're scared of a noise outside. Wanda then magically transforms the beds into a double. This seems to be playing on the transition from the fifties ''Series/ILoveLucy''-like setting of the first episode into a fairly direct pastiche of ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' (as noted above, one the earliest sitcoms to defy the trope.)

* Medical orthodoxy in the late 19th century was that sharing beds was unhygienic (because one lay in another person's sweat and exhaled water vapour), meaning it was highly probable that many happily married couples slept like this (of course many families couldn't afford more than one bed for the whole family, so it wasn't universal).

* ''Series/WandaVision'' episode 2, a GenreThrowback to 60s sitcoms, opens with a gag where the married title characters combine their separate beds together (and [[SexyDiscretionShot have some fun under the covers]]) because they're scared of a noise outside. [[spoiler:We soon see Wanda wearing anachronistic clothes and color objects in the otherwise black and white setting, so this may be an early sign that the sitcom world is breaking down.]]

* ''Series/WandaVision'' episode 2, a GenreThrowback to 60s sitcoms, opens with a gag where the married title characters combine their separate beds together because they're scared of a noise outside. [[spoiler:We soon see Wanda wearing anachronistic clothes and color objects in the otherwise black and white setting, so this may be an early sign that the sitcom world is breaking down.]]