I don’t like people touching me while I am sleeping. However, we usually cuddle up on the couch once a day and have a quick cuddle before lights out.
We also ‘snuggle’ (our term for vertical cuddling) a few times a day for five minutes each time or so. It’s great stress relief and very comforting.
My SO and I go to bed and wake up at different times, so bed cuddling. as defined by the OP, is rare except after sex. If we stay together in bed after sex we can cuddle and talk for half an hour or more. There’s also some rare couch snuggling. I’ve been criticized for not doing that enough. We hug at least a couple or three of times a day, though, and much kissing goes on.
With my OSO there’s an abundance of snuggling on the couch when we have time alone, but alone time is relatively rare and that snuggling is almost the entire extent of our physical relationship. We’ve never been in the same bed. We could snuggle for hours if given the opportunity.
My wife and I cuddle quite a bit.
We have a position we call, well, “position” (we’re creative that way, you see.) It involves us lying in bed, her in front of me, resting against my chest, allowing my to massage the entirety of her upper body while we watch TV.
Thankfully I am not hurt by the bed restriction despite having no current SO. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I cuddled with a woman…in a couch, that is.
My GF is the lucky recipient every evening of thorough foot, leg, hand, arm/shoulder, and neck/upper back massage at my talented hands while cuddling on the couch watching our boxed sets of Buffy, Angel, Charmed, or Supernatural.
When there are hip/shoulder/elbow injuries, beds are just not a comfortable place to cuddle. Spouse and I also go to bed and get up at different times, so by that definition, never cuddle.
Bosh. After 22 years, still can’t walk past without touching, hugging, kissing. Never sit on the couch but we are snuggled together. Stop what we are doing to give the other a big long hug, rest a head on each other’s shoulder, and we live up to our promise to always watch thunderstorms together, usually in a warm embrace. Wouldn’t be together if we didn’t both feel this way.
This is so how it is. You’ve just posted one of the most beautiful posts in SDMB history.
Bosh is literally Turkish for ‘empty’. Spelled boş in Turkish, bo’sh in Uzbek, box in Pinyinized Uyghur—but all pronounced the same, the vowel o as in ocean, and all meaning the same: ‘Empty’. An apt choice of words.