Sexual intercourse and sleep in older age: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
Keywords:
Older adults , sexual activity , sexual intercourse , sleep duration , sleep qualityAbstract
Objectives: To investigate associations between sexual intercourse and sleep quality and duration, controlling for a range of confounders, in a large, representative sample of older English adults.
Methods: Data were from 2,743 men and 2,990 women aged ? 50 years, participating in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Participants reported whether or not they had engaged in sexual activity in the last year, and those who were sexually active reported frequency of intercourse in the past month. Information on sleep disturbance and duration and socio-demographic and health-related covariates was also collected.
Findings: Being sexually active was not associated with sleep disturbance or sleep duration. Men who had less frequent intercourse reported greater sleep disturbance than those who reported no sexual intercourse (OR=1.29, 95% CI 1.02-1.65), but had lower odds of reporting longer than optimal sleep duration (OR=0.45, 95% CI 0.24-0.86). Men who engaged in sexual intercourse once a week or more (OR=0.43, 95% CI 0.23-0.80) also had lower odds of long sleep relative to those who reported no sexual intercourse. Women who engaged in more frequent (? once a week) intercourse reported less sleep disturbance than those who reported no sexual intercourse in the last month (OR=0.68, 95% CI 0.53-0.86), and women who reported sexual intercourse once in the past month had lower odds of long sleep (OR=0.51, 95% CI 0.26-0.996).
Conclusions: In a population-based sample of older men and women in England, there was inconsistent evidence of an association between sexual activity and sleep disturbance and sleep duration.
Downloads
References
Singleton N, Bumpstead R, O’Brien M, Lee A, Meltzer H. Psychiatric morbidity among adults living in private households, 2000. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2003;15:65–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/0954026021000045967
Swift CG, Shapiro CM. ABC of sleep disorders. Sleep and sleep problems in elderly people. BMJ. 1993;306:1468–1471. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.306.6890.1468
Blazer DG, Hays JC, Foley DJ. Sleep complaints in older adults: a racial comparison. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 199;50:M280-284. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/50A.5.M280
Foley DJ, Monjan AA, Brown SL, Simonsick EM, Wallace RB, Blazer DG. Sleep Complaints Among Elderly Persons: An Epidemiologic Study of Three Communities. Sleep. 1995;18:425–432. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/18.6.425
He Q, Zhang P, Li G, Dai H, Shi J. The association between insomnia symptoms and risk of cardio-cerebral vascular events: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2017;24:1071–1082. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487317702043
Li L, Wu C, Gan Y, Qu X, Lu Z. Insomnia and the risk of depression: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMC Psychiatry. 2016;16:375. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-1075-3
Blazer DG. Depression in Late Life: Review and Commentary. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2003;58:M249–65. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/58.3.M249
Meeks TW, Vahia IV, Lavretsky H, Kulkarni G, Jeste DV. A tune in “a minor” can “b major”: a review of epidemiology, illness course, and public health implications of subthreshold depression in older adults. J Affect Disord. 2011;129:126–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2010.09.015
Mittelmark M, Psaty BM, Rautaharju PM, et al. Prevalence of Cardiovascular Diseases among older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Am J Epidemiol. 1993;137:311–317. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116678
Liu TZ, Xu C, Rota M, et al. Sleep duration and risk of all-cause mortality: A flexible, non-linear, meta-regression of 40 prospective cohort studies. Sleep Med Rev. 2017;32:28–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2016.02.005
Sagayadevan V, Abdin E, Binte Shafie S, et al. Prevalence and correlates of sleep problems among elderly Singaporeans. Psychogeriatr Off J Jpn Psychogeriatr Soc. 2017;17:43–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12190
Frappier J, Toupin I, Levy JJ, Aubertin-Leheudre M, Karelis AD. Energy Expenditure during sexual activity in young healthy couples. PLoS ONE. 2013;8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079342
Hiller J. Speculations on the links between feelings, emotions and sexual behaviour: are vasopressin and oxytocin involved? Sex Relatsh Ther. 2004;19:393–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681990412331297974
Allen MS, Desille AE. Health-Related Lifestyle Factors and Sexual Functioning and Behavior in Older Adults. Int J Sex Health. 2017;29:273–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2017.1307301
Lindau ST, Schumm LP, Laumann EO, Levinson W, O’Muircheartaigh CA, Waite LJ. A study of sexuality and health among older adults in the United States. N Engl J Med. 2007;357:762–774. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa067423
Steptoe A, Breeze E, Banks J, Nazroo J. Cohort profile: the English longitudinal study of ageing. Int J Epidemiol. 2013;42:1640–1648. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dys168
Miller MA, Wright H, Ji C, Cappuccio FP. Cross-sectional study of sleep quantity and quality and amnestic and non-amnestic cognitive function in an ageing population: the English longitudinal study of ageing (ELSA). PLOS ONE. 2014;9:e100991. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100991
Stranges S, Dorn JM, Shipley MJ, et al. Correlates of short and long sleep duration: a cross-cultural comparison between the United Kingdom and the United States: the Whitehall II Study and the Western New York Health Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2008;168:1353–1364. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwn337
Alvarez GG, Ayas NT. The Impact of Daily Sleep Duration on Health: A Review of the Literature. Prog Cardiovasc Nurs. 2004;19:56–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0889-7204.2004.02422.x
Lancel M, Krömer S, Neumann ID. Intracerebral oxytocin modulates sleep-wake behaviour in male rats. Regul Pept. 2003;114:145–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-0115(03)00118-6
Hoyos CM, Killick R, Yee BJ, Grunstein RR, Liu PY. Effects of testosterone therapy on sleep and breathing in obese men with severe obstructive sleep apnoea: A randomized placebo-controlled trial. Clin Endocrinol. 2012;77:599–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2265.2012.04413.x
Liu PY, Yee B, Wishart SM, et al. The short-term effects of high-dose testosterone on sleep, breathing, and function in older men. J Clin Endocrinol. Metab. 2003;88:3605–3613. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2003-030236
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright and Licensing
For all articles published in Atena Journals, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work, while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.
Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers
It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyrightholder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyrightholder).
Permission is required for:
- Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
- Substantial extracts from anyones' works or a series of works.
- Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
- Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Permission is not required for:
- Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
- Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
- Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.
Obtaining Permission
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Atena Journals cannot publish material from other publications without permission.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.