SLEEP WOES? SEX Rx

Better than pills

A roll in the hay might keep you from tossing and turning at night.

That’s the takeaway from a survey presented at the SLEEP 2023 annual meeting this week in Indianapolis.

In the survey, 53 adults were questioned about their sleep habits. The questions covered issues like sleep quality, sex and orgasms and the use of sleep medications.

According to the results, 75% of the participants reported sleeping better after sex/orgasm and 64% felt that a sleeping pill had a similar or worse effect on their sleep.

“Little scientific data exists around the impact of sex and orgasm on sleep quality,” lead author Dr. Douglas Kirsch, medical director at Atrium Health in Charlotte, NC, said in a news release.

The study authors noted that sex is often portrayed in the media as conducive to a good night’s rest, but the link hasn’t been examined by scientists.

“While this data is quite preliminary, it was interesting how often sex was used to aid in sleep,” said study co-author Seema Khosla, medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep in Fargo.

Most of the survey participants were fairly young: 89% were between 25 and 49. And 66% of participants reported using sleep medication at some point in their lives to get better rest.

Other research backs up that high usage figure: In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report revealing that in 2020, more than 8% of people had used sleep medication within the previous 30 days.

‘Side effects’

Women in the CDC report were slightly more likely to use sleeping pills than men (10.2% versus 6.6%, respectively), and medication use increased with age.

And 6.6% had used sleep medication daily for the past 30 days, a figure many experts find alarming.

“Sleeping pills have a lot of side effects,” Nishi Bhopal, a psychiatrist and sleep expert, told CNN, while also noting that insomnia also has a serious impact on health.

“It’s really important that we support patients in the best way that we can because insomnia can lead to depression and anxiety,” Bhopal said.