Snore Rooms: A Growing Trend in Home Design
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 2:01PM
Snore rooms may be the answer for some couples.
A “snore room” is now included in homes at Del Webb’s Sun City Shadow Hills community in Indio, CA.
Love may be blind, but it’s not deaf. So, when one partner snores, it can really wreak havoc on the marriage — and on the non-snoring spouse. In fact, bedmates of snorers lose an average of one to two hours of sleep per night and they wake up an average of 21 times per hour. Furthermore, nearly one quarter of all married couples don’t sleep side-by-side through the night, up 12 percent from 2001.
Being awakened by your partner’s snoring is so significant that there is a name for it — spousal arousal syndrome. And, the results are not pretty. The non-snoring partner can suffer from daytime exhaustion, which causes a whole host of including difficulty with concentration and productivity. It also can cause them to experience fatigue, irritability, weight gain, high blood pressure and memory issues.
As result, the market is flooded with items to help with this issue. From mouthpieces and breathing strips to nasal sprays and specialized mattresses, there is a lot to choose from to address this issue. Even builders are trying to address the issue by developing a so-called snore room.
While the concept of a snore room is not a new idea, it is catching on. In fact, it’s reported that celebrities like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and Judge Judy and her husband have snore rooms in their homes. Additionally, the international hotel chain, Crowne Plaza, is testing snore absorption rooms. At the forefront of this movement, are two builders, Del Webb and D.R. Horton, which are offering new home designs featuring snore rooms near the master bedroom for couples who can’t always catch a good night’s sleep together due to snoring, differing schedules or other annoying nighttime habits.
No, they haven’t developed a padded, soundproof room for the snorer, But instead, they have created a dual master bedroom design featuring a primary bedroom and an enclave that share the master bathroom and closet. It is perfect for couples who want to start out in the same bed, but then may end up apart because of ear-splitting snoring. What they have found is that most people feel this feature is a more civilized option rather than forcing one spouse to be relegated to a spare bedroom or worse yet, the sofa. By sleeping in adjoining rooms they still maintain some of the closeness and privacy that they may not get from sleeping down the hall from one another.
Currently, Del Webb offers its dual master bedroom in communities in Nashville, Houston and Southern California. Meanwhile, D.R. Horton is building model homes showcasing the designs at sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.