Dr. Prathap Kumar Pani

Apart from affecting your memory, health and looks, sleep deprivation can lead to decreased physical intimacy as well. People who have trouble sleeping often face difficulty in coping with their relationships, as with almost all aspects of their lives. Similarly, in the modern world of continuous work pressure and fast paced lifestyle, stress generally takes away all the energy required to enjoy a fulfilling sex life.

The following are some of the ways chronic sleep disorders and stress may affect your sex life:

1. Mood swings: Sleep disorders often lead to perpetual mood swings. It can make a person grumpy and quarrelsome. If you're sleep deprived, you may get very agitated even by minor stress. This can hurt interaction between you and your partner, leading to a disruptive relationship in the bedroom.
2. Anxiety: Increased levels of anxiety and stress attributed to lack of sleep can lead to loss of sexual function and even sexual disorders at times. Lack of sleep generally decreases your experience of positive emotions, which may lead to pessimism and subsequently lack of sexual interest.
3. Decreased social activity: Lack of sleep may decrease your likelihood of engaging in social interactions. People with sleep disorders usually avoid social engagements, as they believe it may disrupt their sleep patterns. They rearrange their sleeping patterns by avoiding social interactions, which leaves them with lesser opportunities to meet with people of the opposite sex, thereby affecting their sex lives.

So, what you should do?

1. Focus on getting rid of other stressful issues from your life: Common tensions of your daily life and everyday issues like the normal household chores, and your duties and responsibilities towards your family often leave you too exhausted to spend time with your partner. Moreover, getting preoccupied with social commitments also minimises the time available for just the two of you.
2. Go to sleep and wake up at roughly the same time everyday to tune your sleep cycle. Avoid waking up late into night as far as possible.
3. Avoid afternoon sleep or take only a nap.
4. Don't take heavy foods, big and late meals.
5. Eat at least 2-3 hrs before sleep.
6. Avoid coffee and tea in the night.
7. Don't get glued to the tv, computer, or mobile till sleep time. Shut them down 30 mins. before retiring to bed.
8. Read something calming, meditate, or listen to quiet music just before sleeping.
9. Regular workouts helps you get good sleep.
10. Avoid serious discussions, work or complex decisions 2-3 hrs before sleep. If any of them bother you much, jot them down on a paper. That will lighten your mind help you get better sleep.

If sexual problems and concerns make you sleepless, seek help from a sex counselor. If your sleep problems are due to work in shifts or night-only shifts, take the help of a specialist in sleep problems. This way you can overcome sexual problems arising out of sleep disturbances, and have an improved sex life.