Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October Learn More or Try it out now. REM sleep deprivation increases unstimulated erections in rats, and total sleep deprivation increases erections during audiovisual sexual stimulation in men, but the effects of sleep problems on human unstimulated sexual arousal are unknown.
We examined the associations of subjective sleep quality with unstimulated sexual arousal, satisfaction with sex life, and sexual frequency and desire over the past month. They additionally reported how many days in the past month they engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse, noncoital sex, and masturbation.
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Salivary testosterone T was assayed by luminescence immunoassays. Poorer sleep quality correlated with greater unstimulated sexual arousal in men with higher T levels and in women with higher T levels not taking oral contraceptives. In women with lower T, poorer subjective sleep quality correlated with greater sexual dissatisfaction.
In both sexes, sleep quality was uncorrelated with sexual desire and sexual frequency over the past month. Consistently with other studies in humans and animals, the findings are congruent with the notion that lack of sleep can increase sexual arousal, but not sexual frequency. T might play a role in the sexual arousal caused by lack of appropriate sleep. Poor sleep quality has been related to sexual difficulties 1 - 9 , but case studies suggest that chronic insomnias sometimes increase sexual desire and arousal In fact, there is accumulating research suggesting that lack of sleep can increase sexual arousal in humans and animals.
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The present study aimed at better understanding this intriguing phenomenon in men and women. In male rats, REM sleep deprivation increased spontaneous erections and ejaculations, that is, without the presence of females 11 , 12 , but effects on copulation were found to be mixed with REM sleep deprivation either increasing or reducing copulatory behavior 11 , 13 - In one study, both REM sleep deprivation and general sleep restriction lowered sperm viability, but increased inducible nitric oxide synthase 13 , which can enhance erections 17 , General sleep restriction did not interfere with copulation in male rats Increased genital excitation and sexual behavior were also observed in male cats deprived of REM sleep 19 , In female rats, REM sleep deprivation either increased or reduced proceptivity and receptivity with lower progesterone levels possibly enhancing sexual responsiveness under conditions of REM sleep deprivation 21 , In men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction, total sleep deprivation increased erections in response to audiovisual sexual stimuli 23 , and in a nonclinical male sample, both REM sleep deprivation and non-REM awakenings increased visual attention to images of women, but the non-REM awakenings implied REM deprivation In women, poorer subjective sleep quality over the past month correlated with greater increases in subjective sexual arousal during fantasy Moreover, in a study with women reporting daily sleep duration and sexual responses and behaviors in the next day, shorter sleep duration correlated with greater perceived genital arousal lubrication in the next day, but to lesser desire and less likelihood of having sex In contrast, others found that sleep disorders and shorter sleep duration are uncorrelated with coital frequency 27 , Taken together, all these findings in humans and animals suggest that lack of sleep can facilitate sexual arousal with unclear effects on sexual interactions.
