Doesn’t it sound funny how the solution for your lack of sex drive is in your room? If you have got the sleep science figured out, you may be in for a great sex drive!
If you have noticed a drop in your sex drive lately, then it might be caused by sleep deprivation. As we stated in our article about lack of sleep and the benefits of adjustable beds on it, sleep deprivation has many negative impacts on one’s body. Not only does it affect your mood and your abilities to think, but it also has consequences on your skin, your weight, your height, and funnily-enough, your sex drive. Sure, you would get additional help from companies like True Pheromones could offer you solutions to attract your partner towards you, but if you are not up to it physically, you would not be able to perform in bed, let alone achieve climax for yourself or please your partner.
So maybe the lack of desire towards your partner isn’t due to any dysfunction in your relationship, but rather in your own sleeping patterns.
6 ways of how sleep deprivation affects your sex drive
Lack of sleep lowers testosterone levels
Whether you are a senior citizen or not, a man’s sex drive is driven by testosterone, a hormone responsible for the control of libido. Research has shown that after one week of sleep deprivation, testosterone rate would drop by 15%, which is how much testosterone is lost by a mean in a span of 15 years – basically, a lot.
More importantly, testosterone levels aren’t the only ones affected by lack of sleep. As we have shown in other articles, not sleeping enough messes up a great bunch of your hormones’ levels, and when it comes to hormones responsible for arousal, testosterone isn’t the only one of them. When you don’t get the sleep you need, your levels of every other hormone linked to desire (mainly, estrogen and progesterone for women, and oxytocin and vasopressin for both men and women) change, which proves the existence of a link between sleep deprivation and sex drive.
Exhaustion makes you have even less time for sex
Coming home after a long, exhausting day makes you crave nothing but a good night of sleep. No time nor energy to think or even care about sex.
Not only that, but even engaging in sexual activities when not having any energy (and consequently not having any desire) can be vain for your body would have a hard time reacting to any form of arousal. It is because your mind is fogged out of exhaustion, and your body barely feels like yours when you are extenuated because of sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation messes with your emotions
Lack of sleep messes with hormones, which leads to endless series of senseless mood swings. When you are not getting the sleep you need, your emotions are all over the place, and negative feelings start taking so much room in your life. Needless to say that negative emotions can’t really help with your sex life, quite the contrary, they tend to lower your sex drive and inhibit your arousal.
Besides, in the case of women, as lack of sleep messes with their feelings, it also increases stress in the bedroom. It has been found that women who don’t get enough sleep tend to stress out a lot about their sex life and about sex in general, which in turn reduces dramatically their libido.
That is why it is so important to get enough sleep in order to keep negative emotions away so that your bedroom welcomes nothing but positive vibes. That way, your sex drive will be maintained.
Bad effects on vaginal lubrication
Research has shown that women who don’t get enough sleep may experience a lack of vaginal lubrication, which is almost required for pleasurable sex. That is because vaginal lubrication is tightly connected to arousal in women. And as we have explained earlier, lack of sleep may cause arousal to lessen, which leads to a lack of vaginal lubrication, and necessarily to a loss of libido in women. However, you can try alternatives to help with arousal, such as Ladies Erotica or short stories. It may help in enhancing sexual desire and can give you kinky sex ideas to revitalize the romance.
Inhibits sexual desires for the next day
Studies have proved that the more you sleep, and the more you are inclined to having sex with your partner the following day because of a raise of hormones responsible for arousal.
On another hand, when you are not sleeping well, you tend to avoid getting into sexual activities with your lover as you simply can’t find it in yourself to have sex for you are grumpy and tired.
Depression and anxiety
It is a well-known fact that sleep deprivation, if not the result of a mental illness, leads to mental disorders, mainly anxiety and depression.
It is also known that mental disorders have a non-neglectable effect on sex drive, as depression tends to reduce, almost suppress the pleasure usually felt during sex.
So treating your mental disorders is a key to getting your sex life back to normal. Once you recover from the bouts of anxiety and depression, you could get the best of your sex life; maybe you can also try out new sex toys like a sedoll that can rekindle your partnered or solo sex sessions.
However, as discussed earlier, in order to enjoy your sex life to the fullest, you will need to cure your insomnia. So, here are a few tips to deal with the sleep deprivation issue:
- Avoid caffeine at all costs as it can disturb your sleeping patterns.
- Stay away from screens and electronical devices at least three hours before going to bed.
- Don’t eat heavy meals before bed.
- Exercise but not right before you intend to sleep as you may have too much energy for that.
- Get professional help.
Learn more about sleep deprivation in this article.