Poor sleep may affect good sex in later life

Conclusion These results show that women who sleep better are more satisfied with their sex lives, and more likely to be sexually active with a partner. However, the study can't tell us why this is. So many factors have the potential to affect both sleep and sexual satisfaction, that it's always going to be difficult to un-tangle the relationship between the two. There are a few limitations to the study that make the results less reliable. Although it was a big study, a large proportion of the women chose not to answer the questions about sex. The questionnaire included the option to tick "prefer not to say". This means the results may not be representative of all the women in the study. It's also important to note that the questions were asked only once, so we don't know how the relationship between sex and sleep changed over time. For example, it could be that some women's sexual satisfaction declined after they'd started having trouble sleeping, or that other women's satisfaction increased when their insomnia improved. Conversely, women may have started having trouble with both sleep and sex after a life event such as bereavement, or because of a physical illness. A cross-sectional study can't help us unpick these possibilities. The study didn't ask about life events such as bereavement or divorce, although it did ask about whether women had a current sexual partner. These caveats aside, it's well-known that sufficient sleep is important for health and general w...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Older people Source Type: news