There's nothing worse than slipping into bed and feeling crumbs rolling around beneath the sheets. Now, national research has revealed that eating in bed is, in fact, Britain's most hated bedroom habit.
A new study found that a whopping 58% of the nation admitted eating between the sheets was the worst thing a partner could do in the bedroom and a further 38% said it would be enough for them to consider writing off the chance of a lasting romance with a new lover.
And yet almost a third of Brits (31%) admit they regularly snack in bed while watching their favourite TV show or movie.
The second most hated bedroom habit is leaving dirty crockery on the bedside table – 32% admitted that half drunk mugs of tea and coffee in the bedroom was a major headache at home. Amen to that.
Smoking in the bedroom and leaving stinky cigarette butts in an ashtray in the room took third place, which upsets 27% of Brits on a regular basis.
Smoking in the bedroom is, however, only marginally worse than our significant others spending all their bedroom hours on their tablet or smartphone updating Facebook and Twitter – 23% of the nation have a real problem with social networks between the sheets.
Other highly hated bedroom niggles were doing work in bed, snoring, stealing the covers, leaving clothes on floor, forgetting basic hygiene, talking in our sleep, pizza boxes in bedroom, phone calls in bed and drinking alcohol in bed.
But Britain’s bedroom habits are changing, according to the 2,000 adults surveyed by Betta Living.
Now, we are as likely to watch TV in our bedroom as we are in our lounge – with 42% of Brits admitting we watch our favourite TV shows from a horizontal position at least four times a week.
In fact, one in five British households (21%) now have a bigger (or same size) TV in the bedroom than they do in their lounge.
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In London and the South East, eating in bed is by far the biggest bedroom bugbear with 68% listing it as the worst offence in the boudoir versus the national average of 58%.
And yet, at the opposite end of the country in the North East, they have the biggest concentration of bedroom snackers in the UK – with 49% of those living in the North East saying they regularly snack between the sheets (against the national average of 31%). The region’s biggest bug bear in the bedroom was in fact leaving dirty crockery by the bed.
“This was the same over in the Midlands as well, who also claimed the biggest bedroom offence is dirty crockery abandoned by the bed, with 48% saying they can’t abide it.
"If you’re over in Yorkshire we’d advise that you don’t try and smoke a cigarette in the bedroom – because it is the biggest bedroom hate among 42% of Yorkshiremen and women. And across the Pennines in Manchester, for the majority (51%), their biggest bedroom no-no is people who eat in bed.”
Outside of sleeping and enjoying intimate moments with our lovers Brits now regularly browse our social networks (38%), play video games in bed (24%), catch up on reading the newspaper (19%) and buy shopping online (18%).