Men prefer to do it with a partner while women claim to get more satisfaction doing it alone.

While this can be said for a number of activities involving the bedroom, the source of this information comes from a recently published study into the sleeping habits of adults. It seems that the ladies get a better night's sleep when they are the only one in the bed, with many of the fairer sex stating that their partners disrupt their slumber through excessive snoring.

It is a scientific fact that men suffer from increased snoring the older they get. Unless the man in question has developed a snore like a buzz saw by his early 20s, it is more likely that his nocturnal noises are at a negligible level by the time he meets his future wife.

Snoring responsible for separate rooms

Only as their relationship grows in tandem with his decibel output will the snoring become a significant problem. By that time, however, the marriage is well underway and the wife has a husband she loves with a habit she hates. In fits of midnight helplessness, some wives will be distraught to discover that the fact that her husband's snoring rivals a 747 in the house-shaking stakes, it's not often accepted as adequate grounds for a divorce.

The easiest option left for the long-suffering wife is the implementation of the separate rooms scenario, which has snoring as one of its most cited causes. For the man, this can lead to a feeling of abandonment and the disruption of his own sleep pattern, preferring, as men do, to sleep with their partner beside them.

With thousands of couples facing such a dilemma, news that a professor at a German university has come up with a computerized pillow that reacts to snoring will be held up as a beacon of hope for those who can't sleep with -- or without -- their partner.

Repositioning head stops deafening chainsaw noises

Daryoush Bazargani, a professor of computer science at the University of Rostock, has developed a pillow that that shifts the sleeping position of the head of the snorer until the noise -- akin to swine being tortured -- eventually stops. The movement is so subtle that the snorer has no idea his head is being repositioned, unlike the effect of a sharp elbow from a rudely awakened spouse.

"The pillow is attached to a computer, which is the size of a book, rests on a bedside table, and analyses snoring noises," Bazargani explained at the unveiling of the pillow on Wednesday, Oct. 3. "The computer then reduces or enlarges air compartments within the pillow to facilitate nasal airflow to minimize snoring as the user shifts during sleep.

"I invented it because I snore," he admitted. "I tried all sorts of products, but nothing worked. I hope people who use it will sleep more peacefully."

Bazargani did not say if the pillow could be reprogrammed to smother the snorer should it fail to cure the affliction.