SLEEP ALL NIGHT

Sleep and Sex: Myth or Truth?

• The researchers looked at 956 men and women 59 to 97 years old participating in 1990 in the Rotterdam Study, a long-term community-based study analogous to the Framingham Study of heart health held in Massachusetts in 1948 
• For 6 nights in a row, study participants kept a sleep diary, estimating how long they’d slept and how long it took them to fall asleep on the previous night
• At the same time, they wore a device called an actigraph on their wrists to measure when they were resting peacefully and when they were tossing, turning and otherwise moving around
• Men said they averaged 7 hours of sleep a night, while women thought they got about 6 hours and 45 minutes of sleep every night
• Men said it took them 20 minutes to fall asleep, and women said it took them half an hour
• According to the actigraphs, the men were actually sleeping a bit less than 6-and-a-half hours, while the women were logging about 15 minutes more
• Men also woke up more often frequently during the night. The men drank twice as much alcohol as the women, which accounted for some of their worse sleep quality, but not all of it, the researchers found.

Sleep Can Affect Your Sex Life Quality

• The National Sleep Foundation study reports that in 2005 nearly 25% of couples in the USadmit to being so sleepy that they have lost interest in lovemaking
• People who snore also appear to have inferior sex lives, as one-third of people say that snoring causes a problem in their relationship
• Sleep and sex is not a topic on which a lot of research has been done, according to sleep medicine experts
• Separate beds, bedrooms, or sleeping on the couch may not be the answer either, as that could affect the psychological bond between the two of you
• Just how are sleep and sex related? Well, a low sex drive is the most common sexual complaint made by women–up to 30% to 40% of women.

Here are some facts relating sleep to a person’s sex life:

• Lack of sleep causes moodiness, depression, and anxiety
• These are emotions that obviously affect your drive for sex
• Lack of sleep slows the basic thought processes
• If you’re not thinking straight, you may say or do something that can ruin the moment
• Lack of sleep slows reaction time
• Increased stress translates into less time for both sleep and sex
• Lack of sleep from sleep disorders has been proven to cause certain levels of sexual dysfunction.

Medical Conditions That Will Affect Sleep & Sex

• The medical condition most commonly associated with problems with sleep and sex is sleep apnea, in which the airway is closed when someone is snoring
• People with sleep apnea may wake up as many as 400 times a night in order to breathe again, and this can cause severe daytime sleepiness, and irritability
• Men with sleep apnea tend to have lower levels of testosterone, which can lower libido.
• Other medical conditions that affect sleep and sex include diabetes, lung conditions, depression and heart disease. In addition, some medications that treat these conditions don’t help one’s sex life
• Medications for high blood pressure may cause erectile dysfunction in men by inhibiting blood flow to the penis
• Others may have psychiatric or medical problems that interfere with their ability to sleep well and perform well sexually
• Symptoms of depression and anxiety, for example, can include both insomnia and a diminished sex drive
• Many antidepressants, which can sometimes cause erectile dysfunction and/or a loss of libido, further complicate matters.

Tips For Couples

• Hire a babysitter — maybe even one that takes the kids out, while men and their partners stay in for a romantic dinner
• Go on a walk after dinner. This calms the kids, provides family time, gives everyone exercise which makes us tired enough for sleep but overall more healthy and active for sex
• Give each other a massage
• Offer to draw each other a warm bath
• Hire someone to clean the house–a professional service or local college student
• Take the TV out of the bedroom. Many women are watching TV before bed, which can make for restless sleep and less sex
• To help relax women and to set the mood, men can work with their partners to decide on a decent and early enough bed routine for the kids, give their wife or girlfriend space to get any work needed done before bed, and then still have 30-60 minutes of relaxation time before sleep.

Watch Video: Sex vs Better Sleep

According to a new Better Sleep Council Canada survey, men and women are divided when it comes to how they’ll use the extra hour as the clocks turn back on October 31st. Given the choice between sleep and sex, more men would choose sex and more women would choose sleep. The survey uncovered other tensions in the bedroom, with three quarters (73 per cent) saying poor sleep affects their relationship. A couples counsellor offers tips to help couples make the most of their time in bed, whether it’s for sleep or sex. Distributed by Tubemogul.