AND 77% ARE LYING:

Couples struggle to find harmony between the sheets (Dru Sefton, 12/01/06, Newhouse News Service)

When a snoozing Rob Lineweaver began stealing the covers, wife Kelly was puzzled. "He's not at all a selfish person," she said. Rob was defensive. "I deny that there was intent to increase my own comfort at the expense of my wife's."

Bedding down with another can be cozy, or a challenge. Mostly it's both. So says a professor with a new book — one of few, if there are in fact others, on the subject.

"Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing" examines what happens after the "good nights" are said but before the alarm jangles and you find yourself tangled in sheets, your mate and a snoring dog.

"Nobody was writing about this," said Paul C. Rosenblatt, a family social-science professor at the University of Minnesota. "In my own life and the lives of friends, I was hearing about struggles to share a bed. I knew this was an important topic."

The National Sleep Foundation offers confirmation. Its 2005 Sleep in America Poll revealed that 35 percent of adults attribute relationship problems to their own or their partner's abnormal sleep habits; 23 percent actually end up at some point in a separate bed, bedroom or on the couch.