Am I [M 24] expecting too much privacy from my girlfriend [F 24]?

I can relate to this. My wife and I have two bedrooms because I have a really dysfunctional sleep schedule where I generally do best sleeping 2am-12pm or so and I'm easily woken up and unable to fall back asleep which would clash pretty thoroughly with her M-F/9-5 schedule if we shared a bed every night. We both worried about missing out emotional and physical intimacy if we slept separately all the time so this is a compromise that's working well for us so far: During the work week we sleep in separate bedrooms, but I almost always lay down in bed with her and cuddle for 20-30 minutes when she goes to sleep around 10pm. Then I sneak out of her room, do my own thing for a couple hours, and go to sleep in my room. It's great. We get some quiet intimate time every night and I'm not disturbed when she wakes up and gets ready for work at 6:30. Then we sleep in the same bed together on weekends when sleep needs are a little more flexible. We're both fairly introverted so I also appreciate that we each have a space in our home where we can go when we need a couple hours of solo time.

I can understand both sides of this. I certainly sympathize with your reasons to enjoy sleeping separately, but her desires for the intimacy of sharing a bed are reasonable and quite common. I think there's room for you to compromise.

/r/relationships Thread