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Sleep-deprived women are more likely to refuse sex

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
 
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30 March 2015, 12:30

At the private research university Duke, experts have discovered that lack of sleep affects sexual desire and the production of sex hormones.

In the course of their work, the scientists studied about 200 women, who were divided into several groups. During the experiment, the specialists created various conditions for the participants to sleep and observed the body's reaction.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that women need quality, full sleep (at least 7-8 hours a day). In the group of women who slept the required number of hours, a more pronounced sexual desire was observed (specialists took hormonal tests and used the method of biologically active communication to determine the psychological state of women).

Dr. David Kalmbach, one of the authors of the study, noted that each additional hour of sleep (but not more than 9 hours per day) increases a woman's sexual desire by 15%. As it turns out, the production of female sex hormones is directly related to the sleep hormone, and, according to Dr. Kalmbach, sexologists do not take into account the amount of sleep when working with patients. However, in order to enjoy sex, you need to sleep no more and no less than the required amount of time, since both undersleeping and oversleeping are equally harmful to health (experiments have shown that a decrease in sexual desire also occurs if a woman sleeps more than 9 hours per day).

Timothy Morgentaler, head of the US Academy of Sleep Medicine, noted that it is important to pay attention to how you feel when you wake up. If you feel alert after 7-9 hours of sleep, and your life schedule is not disrupted, then there is no point in reducing or increasing the number of hours of sleep.

First of all, all people are individual, and it is worth considering genetic or cultural characteristics, and also not forgetting about gender (women, due to hormonal metabolism, require 1 hour more sleep than men).

It is known that lack of sleep disrupts many processes in the body, in particular, those who sleep less than 5 hours for several years age 10 years earlier than their peers.

Also, experts from Boston University warn that lack of sleep affects sensitivity to insulin, which is important for normalizing sugar levels. In addition, chronic lack of sleep leads to malfunctions of the pancreas, which entails metabolic disorders and early initiation of the body's aging mechanism.

Insufficient or restless (with frequent awakenings) sleep disrupts the production of collagen, which is necessary to maintain the elasticity and firmness of the skin. Sound and complete sleep helps to relax the facial muscles, smooth the skin, and improve the supply of nutrients to the skin cells.

If we talk about gender differences, then, in addition to the fact that women need more rest at night than men, they are more likely to experience nightmares.

This is the conclusion reached by English specialists who conducted a five-year experiment. As it turned out, women suffer from nightmares twice as often (34% of girls and 19% of guys from among the subjects).

Scientists have also managed to establish that women's nightmares differ from men's - they are more frightening, with vivid images, and the plot of the dream is more sophisticated. Experts suggest that this is due to the high emotionality of women, they experience daytime events more strongly and cannot completely distract themselves from problems.

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