How Does Sleep Affect Your Sexual Life?

What does sleep and your sex life at ED have to do with each other? Well, stay tuned this episode to find out.

This podcast is for you. The Modern Man I'm Dr. Anne Truong, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and best selling author of the book Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get started and be sure to visit my website@sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and resources from the show. See you on the inside.

Although sleep and sex may sound unrelated and the quality and consistency of a person's sleeping habit can actually impact big on their sex life, I'm going to walk you through some things to think about between sleep and sex and how it affects your sexual function and ways for you to improve your sleep habit so that way it will improve your sex life as well too. So number one, disturbed sleep patterns your circadian rhythm, which is the rhythm that is within your body to tell you when to go to sleep and when to wake up, and is a natural internal sleep wake cycle that works through every 24 hours. Now this cycle varies from person to person and 50% of it is actually inherited or genetically determined. However, according to National Sleep foundation, younger Kids less than 18 need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep and older adult above 22 require between 7 to 8 hours of sleep. However, when you don't get enough sleep, your overall health and function is impaired. And I know you know what I mean by this and I have experienced it last week as well too. I was at a conference and so when you don't get enough sleep you experience daytime fatigue, irritability, higher risk of accident if you're driving or even falls and difficulty with concentration and just slow movement. In fact, I almost fell going up and down the stairs and research has shown that sexual functioning is impaired by lack of sleep and also irregular sleeping pattern that disrupt your circadian rhythm. Several studies have shown that shift workers or the people that work at nighttime, such as nurses or nighttime shift workers, have a risk factor for sexual dysfunction ed in men and sexual dysfunction in women. For instance, like healthcare workers who work the night shift report worse daytime functioning that extend into their sex life. Fortunately, however, studies have shown that sleep education and changing in your behavior will result in improved sexual activity. Especially they did a big study on 120 female nurses. Not only do irregular sleep pattern affect a person's sex life, so do sleep patterns that do not align with your partner. So if you're wanting to sleep with your partner, not wanting to sleep, or your partner work night shift or work longer hours, that play a role into it too. And then on top of that, everybody have their own circadian rhythm. So it's possible that one member of a couple will have energy and sexual desire at the other time when the other partner is ready for bed or is fatigued. So it adds a complex component to that. And this is of interesting to note. Men tend to be more active for sexual activity in the evening, while women tend to be more active in the morning. Interesting, because men testosterone level is actually higher in the morning. That's why they have morning wood. But tendency tend to lean toward men wanting to have sexual activity more at night. Let me know what your thoughts are on that and whether you are a nighttime person or a daytime person. So if a couple's circadian rhythm do not line up, it may lead to decreased sexual activity or disruptive sleep if someone is active while the other is trying to sleep. Another thing to consider is insomnia, which is defined as difficulty or inability to fall asleep and stay asleep despite having adequate opportunity for sleep. So chronic insomnia is defined as having three months of at least three times per week of insomnia. Again, these are contribute to sexual performance. There was a study on 171 women that showed that additional one hour of sleep per night is associated with 14% increase in sexual satisfaction and frequency. And the women who had more sleep in this study reported better genital arousal than those who got less sleep. And for men, insomnia and sleep deprivation have been found to be associated with decreased testosterone level. Because we know that men make testosterone at nighttime and it's the highest in the morning. So if they're not getting enough sleep, your body's not making enough testosterone. Surprisingly, research showed that a few nights of sleep deprivation, like less than five hours of sleep a night, can actually result in a 10% reduction in a man's testosterone level. Lastly, obstructive sleep apnea, or sleep apnea. It's a condition where when you're sleeping, you have repeated stopping of your breathing during the time that you sleep. And you only know this when you do a sleep study. But we do know that sleep apnea is associated with increased sexual dysfunction, both men and women. Men with sleep apnea experience higher incidence of ED and women with sleep apnea report higher rates of sexual dysfunction and sexual distress. Treatment of sleep apnea is a CPAP machine or continuous positive airway pressure. It's a standard treatment and it helps improve blood vessels and oxygenation and therefore will help with ed. Now the good news is that good sleeping habit can improve your sleep and and may contribute to better sexual outcome. So here are the best sleeping practice that I recommend. Be consistent with the time that you go to bed and wake up each day, even on the days you don't work and try to sleep seven hours at nighttime and try to sleep between 10pm to 6am I know some of you have work at those hours but it is what it is. If you work at nighttime we try to get seven hours of sleep. And when you are sleeping make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool. Because when you sleep, if the room is cool, you tend to be more comfortable and be able to sleep longer and especially free from distraction of tv, computer and your phone. It's probably best to maybe have your phone charged away from the bedroom and then use the old fashioned clock to wake you up. That's what I use. And try having caffeine late at night meaning no more past 5pm and avoid eating large meals before bed because we tend to eat large meal you tend to be have indigestion and that will disrupt your sleep. Also try to exercise regularly. Exercise can just mean walking or just jumping jacks or jumping rope and it will help you fall asleep and stay asleep and and you want to do this every two hours before you actually go to bed. And also I recommend practice relaxation before you go to bed. Like not using your phone but just closing your eyes and just think of images that relaxes you. Sometimes just closing your eyes will decrease the input that goes to your brain that will relax your mind and relax your body as well too. I find using a sleeping mask very very helpful because once I put that on I feel that I fall asleep faster and sometimes I'll take a nap during the daytime. If my body says that I need a nap, I'll use the sleeping mask and I will go to bed within five minutes of putting that on. And if you consistently find that you can't fall asleep and that you have difficulty sleeping is to consult a doctor that the sleep medicine specialist and have a sleep study done. And oftentimes you do this you may not need to take a sleeping pill because sleeping is like eyes blinking. It should be natural for you and if you institute these recommendation you may see an improvement. And if you're not, get that sleep study done. So having said that I hope you enjoyed this episode. I will really appreciate it if you like comment and subscribe to my channel for more episode. And having said that, you just know that you can live more, love more and be happy. Are you struggling and frustrated in finding a solution for ed? Well, I have just the thing for you. It's called the Modern Man Club led by yours truly Dr. Ann. Together we're redefining male sexuality and embracing a holistic approach to overcoming ed. Without medication or surgery. I will provide a protective environment for community and proven strategy to overcoming ed. It is a safe place. Expert coaching by me and my team. We provide holistic approach to overcoming ED and an empowering community of men with ED supporting one another and lots and lots of educational resources. Visit Men Sexuality Club at the link here on my right and connect with us and reclaim control over your sexual health. I'll see you there.

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