lull in bed?
Study reveals how our sleep improves our sex life
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Sleep is healthy, so is sex. A study reveals how the two are linked and why how well we sleep makes a difference to a fulfilling sex life.
We spend a third of our lives in bed – ideally asleep. During these periods of rest, our body recovers, eliminates toxins, our immune system is strengthened and the metabolism runs at full speed. If we don’t sleep enough or only badly, all these processes don’t run smoothly and the next day our body thanks us with a bad mood and a wrinkled face. Because not only our physical fitness, but also our mind needs enough rest to be healthy and efficient.
What is also good for our well-being is sex, and as a study has now found, good sex also requires good sleep. So is sleeping the solution to all problems in bed?
If it doesn’t rattle in the box anymore
Supposedly, sex is the most natural thing in the world. It is all the more astonishing that problems in bed and a loss of libido affect so many couples. A recent study in the US found that around 26 percent of premenopausal women and as much as half of all postmenopausal women have very little desire for sex, compared to around five percent of men. Millennials are also less sexually active compared to previous generations. The explanation attempts are diverse and range from a higher stress level, to the influence of video games and the use of porn, but also worse or too little sleep.
Despite the great influence of sleep on our well-being and thus our entire everyday life, there has hardly been any research into the extent to which the quality of sleep affects our sex life. So far, the study of sleep and sex has focused on what happens on a physical level during sleep.
Recent Research found that sleep not only affects our sexual organs, but also our subjective sense of sexual satisfaction and other forms of partner touch. This means: the better the quality of sleep, the more satisfying sexual acts were perceived. The authors found that neither the position nor the frequency of sex varied with the quality of sleep, but the sensation did.
The better we sleep, the better the sex
Given the connection between sleep and well-being, it’s hardly surprising that the more rested and relaxed we are, our sexual satisfaction is exponentially higher. If you go one step further, stress and bad moods as a consequence of too little or insufficient sleep naturally also have an impact on our relationship. When we’re stressed, our cortisol levels rise and our body goes into a kind of fight-or-flight mode (fight or flight mode) – hardly anyone has the head free for a few hot thoughts about sex.
Incidentally, it also works the other way around: Sex ensures deeper sleep. In fact, an orgasm releases a wonderful cocktail of neurochemicals that make us feel calm and make it easier to fall asleep. By the way, you don’t necessarily need a partner for this. Works for solo sex too.
What we learn from it…
Sleep is worth its weight in gold, much more than watching and playing another episode on Netflix, because it makes our lives better on all levels: we are healthier, both physically and mentally, we are more balanced and less likely to lose our calm bring, we can deal with stressors much more relaxed and we subjectively have better orgasms, which in turn let us sleep better. A win-win situation, as the saying goes. So: If that’s not a reason to go to bed a little earlier from now on…
Source: Psychologytoday.com