Do you sleep on the wrong side of the bed?

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

I’ve heard of waking up on the wrong side of the bed, but can you actually go to sleep on the wrong side? Yes, if you believe the findings of a December survey of 3,000 British folks conducted by Premier Inn, a hotel chain in the United Kingdom.

The chain claims its survey showed that those who sleep on the left side of the bed (from the vantage point of lying on your back in bed, staring at the ceiling) are “better off” than their right side counterparts -- if you consider being an optimist better off.

“They’re generally more cheerful, but they are also more positive and capable of tackling heavy workloads and a stressful day ahead,” the press release stated. “Indeed, those who sleep on the right-hand side are less likely to wake up in a good mood. Over a quarter of people who snooze on the left side of the bed feel they have a really positive outlook on life in general, compared to 18 per cent of right-side sleepers.”

No word on whether that difference could have been due to chance variation. I doubt they ran a statistical analysis.

As the Brits would say, the study is a bit of drivel.

But that didn’t stop journalists from reporting on it uncritically. In fact, I first heard about it on a news radio station coming in this morning. I e-mailed the reporter later and she told me she sleeps on the right side and is much more “chipper” than her husband, so it doesn’t work for their household. It doesn’t work for mine either.

The one piece of truth that may have emerged from the survey: Three-quarters of the respondents were totally attached to the side of the bed they slept on to the extent that they needed to stick with that side when they traveled to get a good night’s sleep.

I guess there’s no need for couples to sleep head to toe -- to create two right sides of the bed -- after all.