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Sonu Upadhyaya.

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For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

Having sex at bedtime is perceived by some as being as effective as taking a sleeping pill for getting a good night's sleep, according to findings from a small survey conducted via social media.

When 53 people were asked, 75% reported that they slept better after nighttime sex or orgasm, with or without a partner.

And among the 35 individuals who reported use of sleep medications, almost two-thirds said that having sex and/or an orgasm helped them sleep at least as well as or better than taking a pill.

The findings were presented by Douglas Kirsch, MD, of Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the annual SLEEP meeting here, hosted jointly by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

In an interview with MedPage Today, Kirsch acknowledged that the study was not all that scientific. He said he conducted it, along with co-investigator Seema Khosla, MD, of the North Dakota Center for Sleep in Fargo, in hopes of getting a conversation going within the sleep medicine community about sex and sleep.

"This is an aspect of sleep medicine that has not been well explored, and I am the first to admit that our findings raise a lot more questions than they answer," Kirsch said.

"Obviously this is an uncomfortable topic for many patients and their doctors, and I don't think it's talked about all that much," he said. "Our findings suggest that many people use sex to help them sleep better. That may not be all that surprising, or maybe it is."

The eight-question survey, created with Qualtrics, was distributed through social media -- mostly Twitter, but not Facebook, Kirsch said.