TWICE AS MANY Brits charge their mobiles before going to sleep as say their prayers, revels a shocking new study.

The Sleep Council polled 1,400 people across the UK and found that hardly any of them go to bed at the same time - or even in the same room - as their partners because they're playing with electronic gizmos such as phones, computers and electric toothbrushes.

After cleaning their teeth with an electric toothbrush and setting the alarm on their Blackberry or mobile (22 percent), the average adult slips, exhausted, into bed between 10 and 11pm. 40 percent rarely or sometimes go to bed at the same time as their partner while one in four couples admit to always or regularly sleeping separately.

And before people crash out, charging up electrical appliances (22 percent) has taken over from prayers (10 percent) as part of the bedtime routine. One in three make phone calls and sends or receives text or emails in bed. A further one in five keeps busy checking up on social networking sites, playing a computer game or listening to MP3 players.

But, says the survey, some things don’t change: pyjamas remain the most popular bedtime apparel with women (37 percent) outnumbering men (21 percent) in wearing them. Men are almost twice as likely as women (40 percent as opposed to 22 percent) to wear nothing at all.

And a worrying one percent of men questioned claim to wear a nightie. µ

L'Inq
Sleep Council