A good night’s sleep has many health benefits. Now, a new study has reported that a good night’s rest can spruce up a woman’s sex life.
The study authors note that the impact of sleep disturbance in regard to sexual difficulties has not been fully investigated. They explain that past studies have suggested that short sleep duration and poor sleep quality result in poor female sexual response. However, these studies consist of cross-sectional analyses; thus, the influence of sleep on sexual function and behavior has not been examined in a prospective (forward-looking) study. A cross-sectional analysis is a type of observational study that involves the analysis of data collected from a group of individuals at one specific point in time. Therefore, the objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of nightly sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep onset latency (time it takes to fall asleep) on daily female sexual response and activity.
The study group comprised 171 young women who did not take antidepressants who had reliable Internet access; they were recruited from a United States university. The women first completed baseline measurements in a laboratory, and then completed Internet-delivered surveys at their habitual wake time for 14 consecutive days.
All outcome measurements were based on daily recall. The women completed the ‘s desire, subjective arousal, and orgasmic functioning scales, as well a the Female Sexual Function Index’s genital arousal scale. The subjects indicated whether they engaged in partnered sexual activity or self-stimulation in response to a variety of situations.
The researchers found that longer sleep duration was related to greater next-day sexual desire, and that a one-hour increase in sleep length corresponded to a 14% increase in the likelihood of engaging in partnered sexual activity. In contrast, sleeping longer predicted poorer next-day genital arousal. However, the researchers found that women with longer average sleep duration reported better genital arousal than women with shorter average sleep length.
The authors concluded that obtaining adequate sleep is important for the promotion of healthy sexual desire and genital response, as well as the likelihood of engaging in partnered sexual activity. These relationships were independent of daytime mood and fatigue. They noted that further research might focus on sleep disorders as risk factors for sexual dysfunction.
