I (27 F) and my boyfriend (29 M) are about to move in together and we are concerned about how to cohabitate at nighttime. I usually go to bed around 9:00 p.m., wind down for about an hour before falling asleep around 10:00 p.m., and usually wake up around 5:50 a.m. to get ready for work.
My boyfriend works a blue collar adjacent job and wakes up at 5:00 a.m. Unfortunately for him, he has lots of issues with his sleep schedule. He has tried everything from doctors to medications and nothing seems to work, so he goes to bed usually around midnight or later. We are both multiple alarm people, but I am quite sensitive to all his alarms which results in me usually shaking him awake to hit snooze or turn them off. As a result, I am unable to go back to sleep, so I also wake up at 5:00 a.m. While fifty minutes of sleep is not a ton of time, it does add up.
I am about to close on a house next week and he will be moving in with me, but we are concerned on how our sleeping arrangement will work. We do not want to create resentment or tension due to our different sleeping schedules so we are looking for any suggestions or if other couples have been in our situation.
We have never fully lived together, so we are not sure how this would work out long-term. He would spend quite a few nights at my apartment over the two years we have been together, but never more than a week.
We have thought about just completely sleeping in separate bedroom, but I do like sleeping next to each other at night as we do not have a lot of time to spend together after work and the gym. Our next idea is getting a king size bed so we can hopefully get more sleep, but this still leaves the alarm issue. Lastly, I wanted to try the Scandinavian sleep method as I have heard this makes a huge difference for a lot of couples, but once again, leaves the alarm issue.
Have any similar couples overcame these sleep issues? Any advice, hacks, or real-world experiences would be extremely appreciated.