Getting enough sleep has long been established to be good for your health. Researchers, however, found that women looking to improve their sex life should particularly consider logging more hours in bed.
In a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers detailed an experiment involving 171 women of college age. The subjects completed preliminary questionnaires about anxiety, depression and sexual health and were tasked with accomplishing another set of questionnaires for 14 days. They were to complete the new set of questionnaires upon waking up, assessing sexual function over the course of 24 hours and quality of sleep from the previous night.
According to results, sleep appears to impact sexual desire, with every additional hour of rest increasing the likelihood of subjects engaging in sexual activity with a partner by 14 percent. At the same time, sleep also had a role in genital arousal, with those sleeping longer experiencing fewer problems on average when it comes to vaginal arousal.
Dr. David Kalmbach, lead author for the study, said that how sleep influences arousal and sexual desire has not been thoroughly explored before. In fact, not a lot of attention has been given to the topic. However, the results of the study showed that there was indeed a connection between sleep and arousal and sexual desire in women.
"I think the take-home message should not be that more sleep is better, but that it is important to allow ourselves to obtain the sleep that our mind and body need," Kalmbach explained.
The results were the same even when age, daytime feelings, sexual distress, presence of menstruation and fatigue were factored in, but the researchers were not able to establish how exactly sleep affects sexual health.
Kalmbach pointed out that a number of factors contribute to sexual problems. While sleeping more has been shown in the study to boost sexual activity, women should not look at getting more sleep as a magical remedy. Overall health, mood and relationship quality should also be given attention.
"Additionally, the relationship between insomnia and sexual dysfunction may prove to be an overlooked and important area of interest for clinical research. Clinicians may consider assessing patients' sleep habits and insomnia symptoms as potential factors influencing sexual difficulties," the study noted.
Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School, the Henry Ford Health System and Kent State University participated in the study. Other authors include J. Todd Amedt, Vivek Pillai and Jeffrey Ciesla.
Photo: Paul Roth | Flickr
