This will wake you up.
This study appears in the Journal of Sexual Medicine and goes like this: no sleep equals no whoopie and nobody's happy.
Women who don't sleep lose the desire to have sex, and men lose more than that.
"If your body's tired, nothing will go on down there," said a patient.
That's from a patient in his "20's" whose girlfriend was sick of his interrupted sleep and snoring and bummed that their sex life took a hit.
She made him go to the doctor because he was only sleeping 2-3 hours at a stretch.
The root of this is the sex hormone testosterone. If we don't sleep then our bodies don't get the chance to replenish it which means men cannot perform and women don't even seem to care anymore.
"I was too tired to do anything, I wasn't performing like I used to, I knew something was wrong," the patient said.
"Patients with sleep apnea often think they sleep for 12 hours but they are actually waking up 50 to 60 times an hour," said Dr. David Volpi, of Manhattan Snoring and Sleep Center.
Sleep expert Dr. David Volpi videotapes people in bed so they can see and hear it for themselves; the snoring, the tossing, turning and lack of rest.
18 million people have "diagnosed" sleep apnea and he fears many more are undiagnosed.
"If you have better sleep and better sex you are probably having a better time during the day too," Dr. Volpi said.
Dr. Volpi says there is new hope for people who cannot get to sleep or stay that way.
"There's a new technology to treat sleep apnea, it's a new technology called Provent. It's a small device you wear under your nose," Dr. Volpi said.
Good news! After a few weeks of therapy, things are looking up for the patient featured in this story.
"We're getting back to our old days!" the patient said.
Sleep and sex.
It can either be a vicious cycle or a positive one!
