Devin Burke, your guide to better sleep and Sleep Science Academy founder, explains how sleep affects your sex life.
If you would rather go to sleep than have sex with your partner, chances are you’re not getting enough sleep. How are sleep and sex connected?
The first thing to understand is that we have a massive epidemic of low testosterone, and I believe it is due to the lack of quality sleep most people are getting these days. Let me break this down and explain why it is happening.
Deep Sleep
The dream state of sleep, REM (Rapid Eye Movement), is deep sleep when the hormones testosterone and estrogen are replenished and released. REM occurs after about 90 minutes of being asleep.
We go through different sleep cycles approximately every 90 to 110 minutes, and REM is one of the last of these cycles. If you think of your night as four quarters, the fourth quarter is when most REM sleep occurs.
Most of us don’t get enough sleep, so we are interrupting this REM period which negatively impacts the production of testosterone and estrogen. This disruption depletes our sexual drive and performance.
A study of 4000 adult men and women in their mid-60s indicates a link between erectile dysfunction and not getting enough quality rest. Again, REM happens in the fourth quarter of our night, and we want to ensure that we allow at least an eight-hour window of opportunity for sleep to reach that deeper level of REM to maintain our hormone levels.
The Key Takeaways
Better sleep improves hormone production, and when discussing sex, we must talk about hormones. Testosterone, estrogen, and all the hormones are replenished and released during the night via REM sleep.
If you are awakening frequently throughout the night, you are not getting into the REM, deep sleep where your body is healing and releasing essential hormones. You may be sleeping, but you are not getting the quality of sleep you need, which drives down hormone production.
When you get amazing sleep, you have more energy. You need energy to have sex; if you’re too tired for sex is likely because you are not getting sufficient rest, so your energy production goes down.
Nobody feels like getting into the mood when in a low energetic state. You want to keep your energy level high so that you can be present and perform with your partner.
Lastly, getting enough rest and quality sleep will reduce your stress level, and you will be better able to handle stress. Lowering your stress allows you to get better sleep, providing the optimal production of testosterone and estrogen to keep you vital, fertile, and performing in bed.
Final Thoughts
Having adequate energy to handle the day-to-day challenges, being fully present in what we do, and having a healthy sexual relationship is essential for a happy and fulfilling life. Insufficient rest, especially inadequate REM deep sleep, can make your lifestyle anything but happy and fulfilling.
Sleep Science Academy’s uniquely empowering and highly successful program of pairing clients with a personal, professional sleep coach can help you reclaim that necessary deep sleep to improve their quality of life, including your sex life.
Contact us today to schedule your complimentary sleep consultation with one of our certified sleep coaches and learn more about how Sleep Science Academy can help you achieve a lifetime of quality sleep.
In this brief article, you can learn more about Dynamic Sleep Recalibration (DSR) and the Sleep Science Academy difference.