Sleepiness after sex

[differenceblog]

There are many popular answers on male sleepiness after sex, most of which focus on exertion and relaxation. Dr. Patti Britton (undated) on iVillage, S Thompson (2006) on AssociatedContent, and even the book 'Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex? (Leyner and Goldberg, 2006)*. However, scientific publications on the subject appear to be sparse.

Comments

[unsomnambulist]

Oddly enough, I (a woman) am always sleepy after sex and my boyfriend never is.

[epi_lj]

I was thinking a similar (or the same) thing myself: It seemed a bit odd to have all these people looking for explanations of the phenomenon without firm proof that the phenomenon even exists as a preliminary step.

Anecdotally, and knowing that the plural of anecdote is not data, I haven't found it to be true. Certainly I've found people to sometimes become sleepy after sex and sometimes not, but I haven't noticed any particular pattern relating to the gender of the person. It seemed to vary much more from instance to instance with a given person than in general between people.

[detonate_for_me]

I've been told my many people that I'm the "guy" in most relationships. I definitely am the one who falls asleep afterward. Obviously, this may be related to the narcolepsy. :D

[mycrust]

Why don't women get sleepy after sex?

Because they aren't coming?

It often seems to me like the books that are asking these sorts of questions assume a completely non-existent social symmetry between heterosexual couples in the bedroom, excitedly point a finger at anecdotally observed differences and then try to chalk those up to some irreducible biology. Huh?

Get back to me when you have a positive control for orgasm, Leyner and Goldberg.

[beowabbit]

Actually, I don’t think I’m particularly sleepier after sex, except insofar as “after sex” is universally later than “before sex”. On the other hand, I had a female partner once who did generally fall asleep (at least for a nap) after orgasm, no matter what time of day it was.

[differenceblog]

My biggest issue is that I'm hungry after sex. That, and the need to evacuate my bladder (deeply trained after multiple UTIs) makes me get up and walk around, which prevents afterglow from turning into naptime, in my case.