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A happy wife boosts marital sleeping schedules. New research reveals that spouses are more likely to sleep in sync.

Researchers found that couples are more likely to have the same sleep-wake schedules when the wife with more satisfied with their marriage.

The latest study involved 46 couples who complete relationship assessments. Researchers found that on average synchrony in sleep-wake schedules among couples was high. The study revealed that partners who slept in the same bed were awake or asleep at the same time about 75 percent of the time. However, the percent of time the couple was awake or asleep at the same time was greater when the wife reported higher marital satisfaction.

"Most of what is known about sleep comes from studying it at the individual level; however, for most adults, sleep is a shared behavior between bed partners," said lead author Heather Gunn, PhD, postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, according to a statement. "How couples sleep together may influence and be influenced by their relationship functioning."

"The sleep of married couples is more in sync on a minute-by-minute basis than the sleep of random individuals," said Gunn. "This suggests that our sleep patterns are regulated not only by when we sleep, but also by with whom we sleep."

The findings were presented Wednesday in Minneapolis at the 28th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.