Does Masturbation Make You Tired?
Sure, having sex is fun. But getting a full eight hours of sleep? Now, that's our idea of a good time. Unfortunately, it's not something everyone is familiar with. According to the CDC, about a third of the population suffers from chronic sleep deprivation every night. Fortunately, there seems to be a way to have your cake and eat it too. As it turns out, masturbation can make you tired. Keep reading to learn more about how some simple self-gratification can help you fall asleep.
How Can Masturbating Help Me Fall Asleep?
So, how can masturbation help you sleep? The answer is in your head. Or, maybe in your hormones.
Hormones are your body's chemical messengers that tell your brain what to do at any given point in time. They regulate your growth, your emotions, your stress response, your reproductive and sexual capabilities, and your sleep.
When you masturbate you tend to orgasm, and orgasm makes your body releases a number of hormones. This includes dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, testosterone, endocannabinoid, and prolactin. Each one of these facilitates a number of responses in your body, which is why masturbating can make you feel a number of things.
When you orgasm at night, these hormones produced by masturbating mix up with the natural hormones your body is already producing, namely the melatonin which regulates your sleep cycle. And this in turn puts you in just the right mood to sleep.
Of course, studies on this area are limited, and the research itself has many limitations. Apart from orgasm affecting your mood, there really hasn't been any conclusive research to prove that masturbation does have an effect on sleep.
That said, perception is another matter. According to some, masturbation can introduce some sort of placebo effect. If you believe masturbation will help you fall asleep, it just might.
Check out the information below to learn more. We've provided some more information on the effects of masturbation and how that might impact your sleep.
Solo Sex Makes You Happy
Sex with a partner makes many people happy, but who knew doing it on your own inspires those happy hormones too? As mentioned, an orgasm makes your body release dopamine, which is known as the "feel-good hormone." It makes you feel pleasure and helps you concentrate and find things interesting.
Dopamine is also involved in your sleep cycle, but it's not something you want too much before bed because, unlike melatonin, it also induces alertness and wakefulness.
Masturbation Calms You Down
Of course, happiness isn't all you get from an orgasm. Oxytocin also comes into play. And while the dopamine rush may make you feel alert, oxytocin will help you destress. Oxytocin is mainly known as the love hormone because it is largely responsible for the emotions you associate with falling in love. It also slows down your heart rate, which is likely why you feel strangely relaxed after rubbing one out.
Masturbation Also Reduces Stress
That's not all. Oxytocin is also known to lower cortisol, the "stress hormone." This helps explain why masturbating makes you feel a little more mellow. Oxytocin also has anxiolytic effects, meaning it eases anxiety. It helps you process negative emotions as well.
These effects combined are what make masturbation a great way to take your mind off daily stressors, which always leads to better sleep. We all know how much easier it is to fall asleep when you aren't stuck worrying about something.
Orgasm Decreases Pain
Orgasm also inhibits pain. The endorphins your body releases after orgasm don't just make you feel good. They're also very inexpensive and natural pain reliever.
Linguistics can lend a hand here when it comes to explaining why. Endorphin is short for endogenous morphine, which basically means it's morphine that your body produces naturally. To that point, there's actually a study that suggests that sexual activity may lead to partial or complete relief of headaches from migraines.
Orgasm Can Also Inspire Feelings of Clarity
Obviously, the release that comes with masturbating does wonders for your hormones. But that's not the end of it. There's also what people call the post-nut clarity you usually experience after a great orgasm.
The belief is that being horny makes us do many strange and bad decisions, and masturbating helps clear our minds from that fog. The scientific background for this belief goes back to the hormones our body releases after an orgasm. The combination of happy hormones is said to mimic the effects of meditation, which helps you clear your mind.
Conclusion
While it's perfectly normal and healthy to engage in self-gratifying sexual activities, relying on masturbation to make you drowsy and help you fall asleep isn't a great plan for the long term. After all, there are other ways to get the restful sleep that you need that are proven, and effective.
Establishing good sleep hygiene is one of the best ways to get a consistent good night's sleep. You may also opt for natural sleep supplements that do not alter your brain chemistry.
Sandland Sleep products utilize hemp and herbal extracts thoughtfully formulated to gently send natural signals to your body that it's time to sleep without any side effects that are commonly exhibited by other sleep aids. By interacting with your body's natural endocannabinoid system and nudging your body's natural hormones and neurotransmitters, Fall Asleep and Stay Asleep can help you sleep throughout the night with no disruptions.
Many people compare sex to exercise, and in a way, sex is physical exercise. In this case, masturbation would fall under the category of a light exercise, kind of like a warm-up. It involves less movement than penetrative sex, so logically it can't burn you out as much as sex will. However, orgasm is as an orgasm does, and the hormones involved when you orgasm on your own or with a partner are the same. With that, masturbation may still make you feel tired.
It's pretty common to feel drained after masturbating, but this is mostly a direct result of an orgasm. An orgasm helps release endorphins into your bloodstream which causes pleasure and relaxation, thus making you feel sleepy or lethargic. There's also a matter of perception, studies show that the relaxing or tiring effect of masturbation may be caused by people believing that it will make them exhausted. That is to say, if you believe doing this will tire you out, chances are it will.
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