Has sleeping separately ever helped a marriage in conflict?

I’ve read a lot of posts about people sleeping separately due to sleep issues, but not any due to conflict. My husband is incredibly emotionally unavailable. He lacks any emotional wisdom or maturity. He’s incredibly smart, and an amazing person.. but when it comes to our marriage, he’s just failing. I don’t want to leave him, divorce isn’t an option. We have tried therapy. I explain how he neglects my love language of physical touch and quality time. He doesn’t communicate anything, and he “doesn’t really know his love language”. I could find a million dollars and this man would be unaffected. He doesn’t change based on his surroundings. He’s extremely routine, and there’s no room for anyone else in his routine. When I share my feelings, or I open up about issues I’m having, he just stares at me. He doesn’t respond for literally 5-10 minutes and then says he feels rushed when I probe for a response. I have uncontrollably sobbed in front of him because of how he hurts me and makes me feel rejected, and he still just stares. Therapist told him to communicate his feelings more and to love me, and do more to show his affection. Nothing changed. All he communicated in therapy was that I’m “too emotional” because I cry when he hurts me. I told him we shouldn’t bother with therapy and save the money and he agreed. I’m a SAHM. I left my job and my home state/friends and family to follow him in his career. We have moved a couple times. The mental load of caring for our family and the home is so overwhelming. I miss working, and being with friends. We moved to a new area roughly 9 months ago, and our marriage has honestly just sucked ever since. He worked up until the day we moved, and so packing/managing everything related to moving fell on my shoulders all while I managed our 3 children- the youngest being only 2 years old when we moved. I’m struggling because I feel alone and isolated. I miss my independence when I worked and provided solely for my older 2 kids. I cook, clean, meal plan, grocery shop, plan/pack for any roadtrips (to see his family mostly) wake up with kids who are vomiting, do all the laundry, manage everything with the kids and school and appointments, I even bought our house essentially alone while he worked every day from 4am-8pm (all while I had an infant whom I also woke up with all night), and spent hours every day while he was working getting our yard in great shape, dug a huge area for a fire pit by myself, made the fire pit by myself, painted our entire pergola and helped him build it while still maintaining everything else. Also- sex 2-5 times a week, never been more than a week without. Now I’m not saying he doesn’t ever help. He does… I just have to ask him and give him specific instructions. Like a child. My husband has the freedom to workout each morning uninterrupted and plays video games often (I encourage it, I am happy to see him unwind) but recently I had found out (accidentally) while using his phone on a car ride while mine was plugged in- a bookmark for an article titled “how to get my wife to workout” and he claims it was so long ago and just because he wanted me to be healthier. He bookmarked it probably when I was about 8 months postpartum. For reference- after having 3 children, I am still pretty fit.. just not super toned, not that I have to justify myself. I feel so deteriorated as a woman to find out that he is so fixated on my fitness. I go all day without sitting down. I have a toddler attached to my hip, we go to the library and run errands. Everything I do for him and our family, I do because I love him and I want to. But it seems like bringing home a paycheck is the only contribution he makes sometimes. There’s no effort in our marriage from him. He doesn’t ever think about me or my needs. His attempt at physical touch is just gently running his hand across my back when he walks by, we’ve gone days without kissing or hugging and he doesn’t even notice. I just don’t know what to do anymore besides buy myself a twin bed and move out of the room. Sometimes I sleep on the couch (I have a bad back but I don’t want him to have to sleep on the couch) and he just goes to sleep without any issue while I lay awake all night. I used to feel like such a great wife, I used to make his lunches and clean out his nightstand or car just because. Now I can hardly get to his laundry without dragging my feet. I still bake him all of his favorite desserts, and cook his favorite meals often. I made him a homemade s’mores cheesecake from scratch this year on his birthday (along with the typical slow cooked ribs) and he said it was the best cheesecake he’d ever had. You’d think the following week, he’d be extra affectionate. He was not. I don’t feel like a good wife anymore. I don’t feel like it makes a difference what I do. I’ve read all the marriage books, I’ve done all the research, planned us a cruise and marriage retreat and here we are. We don’t go on dates unless I ask/remind him we should go on one and since I’m so depleted, we usually argue on them or are mostly silent because he only discusses surface level topics.

Would 6 months or so of sleeping separately kick some sense into this man- or will he remain unaffected?

Posted Feb 19, 2025, 12:20 PM UTC

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