Sleeping with your partner can be bad for your health and your relationship, scientists have warned.

Researchers found that sharing a bed often led to poor quality sleep because people were regularly disturbed by their loved ones. They found that, on average, couples suffered 50 per cent more disturbances when sleeping with their partners than they did on their own.

This often led to "tension" in the relationship as well as health problems associated with lack of sleep, including heart disease and depression.

Yet the researchers found that people tolerated it because sleeping together is considered a sign of intimacy and to sleep separately is considered "culturally wrong".

The scientists, speaking at a seminar on sleep at the British Science Festival earlier this week, said people should speak to their partner before sharing a bed led to poor health or divorce.

Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep expert at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said: "A normal double bed is 4ft 6in wide. That means you have up to nine inches less per person in a double bed than a child has in a single bed. Add to this another person who kicks, punches, snores and gets up to go to the loo and is it any wonder that we are not getting a good night's sleep?"

Dr Stanley, who sleeps in a separate bed to his wife, and who set up the Sleep Lab at the University of Surrey, said: "If you are sleeping together and it is all right then carry on. If not then you should do something about it, not just tolerate it. Getting a good night's sleep is as important as diet and exercise."

Dr Robert Meadows, a sociologist at the University of Surrey, carried out a study which found, on average, that sleeping with a partner increased activity, or disturbances, by 50 per cent.

For couples who want to continue sharing a bed he suggested buying a bigger bed and/or separate duvets.