Health Matters: Sleep your way to a better sex life

After a detailed medical history, physical examination, and laboratory tests I was still unable to arrive at a diagnosis on why Andrew could not rise to the occasion. He had been off sex for six months after his wife rebelled and moved out of their bedroom.

"She was tired of my failure," Andrew explained on his first visit to the Sexology Clinic.

The couple was in their early forties. Andrew was a nurse while Rebecca was a teacher. The two had been married for eight years and had two children.

I went deep into understanding Andrew's life circumstances for the period leading to his erection failure. One remarkable thing was that he had just started a second job in a private hospital while maintaining his usual job in a government hospital.

"You know the issues of salary delays and low pay for nurses," he explained, "income from this second job has helped me offset debts."

The problem however was that Andrew no longer got time to sleep. He did night duties in the private hospital and day duties in the government hospital.

"In the private hospital I work for seven nights consecutively then have a week off," he explained, "so I have a total of two weeks in a month when I work day and night because I have to do my daily duties in the government hospital."

Sleep is critical to healthy sexuality. Those who skip sleep will most likely end up with a sex problem.

"What do you mean by healthy sleep?" Andrew asked, his eyes red shot from sleep deprivation.

To understand what healthy sleep is, you need to understand the many types of unhealthy sleep, also called sleep disorders. First, some people get obstructed in the throat and the airway during sleep. Most of them snore heavily. In most of these cases one has gained too much weight so that when muscles of the neck relax during sleep, the weight of the fatty tissues obstruct the airway. They do not wake up as such but snore and keep moving in their sleep to relieve the obstruction. The condition is known as sleep apnea. Victims wake up tired and sleepy. Affected men are prone to erection problems.

The second problem is insomnia. This is a situation where one finds it difficult to fall asleep. In other cases, one may fall asleep but is unable to sustain sleep. In other cases, one loses sleep in the wee hours of the morning. The result is that one sleeps for too few hours. Whenever you fail to sustain six hours of uninterrupted sleep you become prone to many medical and psychological problems. Sexual problems similarly become prevalent.

The third sleep disorder is the disruption of the circadian rhythm. You see, the body has its biological clock which is synchronised with nature so that when the sun goes down, the body goes into a sleep mode and as the sun comes up, body organs awaken. In medical, security, manufacturing, and many other sectors where day and night duties are necessary, people disrupt the biological clock. It is important to note that several chemicals in the body are replenished through a programmed system that follows the biological clock. Testosterone, the hormone responsible for sex, is replenished during sleep that follows the circadian rhythm. A disruption in natural sleep patterns is known to disorganise the body and lead to sex problems.

"Wow……so what do I do doctor?" Andrew asked, visibly shaken.

Well, one has to make choices in life. The choice you make will come with consequences. For healthy sexuality, maintain a lean body weight through diet and exercise to avoid sleep apnea; seek treatment for insomnia; and obey your biological clock.

"Meanwhile I will prescribe for you some erection enhancers to use as the body recovers from the disruption that this second job has caused," I said.

Andrew dropped the night job and it took four months to fully regain his erections.