Sex (or autoeroticism) before falling asleep improves sleep quality: confirmation is scientific

According to the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine One in four adults has insomnia problems And 30% of Italians sleep less than 6 hours per night. Sleeping little or badly involves waking up more tired than we had to bed, with important consequences on one’s working, social life and, with the passage of time, on health.

If the condition is chronic the best solution is obviously to contact a doctor but according to a new study it would exist An activity capable of clearly improving the quality of night rest: sex.

Nothing new would be said, given that the feeling of relaxation and sleepiness that captures post coitus and that pushes to fall asleep quickly is well known to many people, but now to confirm that this action is a cure -all for sleep would not be only intuition but science.

The experiment on seven couples

The study which would attest to it was carried out by the Central Queensland University and from the Flinders Universityin Australia. The researchers of the two universities, led by Michele Lastella, a sleep sports expert of Central Queensland University, have monitored the sleep quality of seven heterosexual couples of about 30 years for 11 consecutive nights. In this period of time, the volunteers, recruited with a social announcement, alternated three distinct actions before bedtime, one per night: Individual masturbation, couple sex or no sexual activity.

In the days when no sexual activity was expected to couples, it was asked to keep their usual pre -sleep extra -sex behaviors; while in the other two cases of carrying out sexual activity as a last action before trying to fall asleep.

During the experiment, everyone has completed daily reports on the quality of their sexuality and sleep. The latter has also been objectively measured through headphones for polysomnography worn all night, which record brain activity, movements and breathing.

At the end of the experiment what emerged is that on nights where they had sexual relations as a couple or masturbatedalthough postponing about half an hour the moment of falling asleep, the volunteers woke up less during the night and overall they slept better. To say it were the instrumental but also themselves tests, who confirmed that they had rested more serenely.

In addition, on a scale from 1 to 100 points, they also reported feeling up to 5 points more ready and motivated in facing the following working day When the night before they were masturbated, and 11 points after a sexual intercourse with the or partner.

There are no improvements in the speed of falling asleep or in the duration of sleep, but the reduced sample taken into consideration for The study is too small to draw definitive conclusions.

Also for this reason the researchers suggested the need to deepen the link between sex and sleepcarrying out further research involving people of different ages, with different inclinations and sexual habits and also include subjects with sleep disorders and health problems.

Sex-not, a combination under examination for years

Young Couple Man and Woman Intimate Relationship on Bed FeetSergii Gnatiuk

Before this other studies had already attested that sexual intercourse, in particular if it is reached orgasmhave a soporific effecteven if the exact mechanisms behind this mechanism are not yet clear. The most accredited hypothesis is that the combined release of oxytocinprolactin and the inhibition of cortisol that takes place during orgasm has relaxing properties. Osdocin, in particular, often defined as the bond hormone, increases after sexual intercourse and in addition to improving the quality of the sleep of women and men, is associated with one Better quality of life and lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

The studies on the sex-not binomial carried out so far, however, were based on anecdotal tests, told by the same participants, while the Australian one is the first who Examine sleep after sexual activity using scientific measurement tools.

Even if many things are not yet clear and before establishing granite certainties it is necessary to deepen the story, in the meantime if the night you struggle to sleep you can still try this path, which if only is pleasant and without contraindications.