SEX LIFE AND FERTILITY...

“There’s a bi-directional relationship between sleep and sex, or sleep and libido,” says neurobiologist Dr Verena Senn, head of sleep research at the mattress company, Emma (emma-sleep. com). “That means the more you sleep, the more sex you’re likely to have, and also the more sex you have, the more sleep you’re likely to get. One study found that with every hour more sleep they get, women were 13 per cent more likely to have sex.” And, of course, the opposite is true as well – but it’s not just a case of being too tired for it.

“When we sleep, we produce a lot of hormones linked to stress reduction and relaxation, which means we tend to feel more confident and happy. But we also know that sleep increases levels of testosterone – in both sexes – which has an impact on libido.”

As you might have guessed from the crucial role that sleep has to play in the regulation of all of the body’s hormone systems, there also seems to be some correlation between sleep and fertility.

A review published in the journal of Fertility and Sterility looked at 33 different studies and found that while more research is still needed in this area, sleep did seem to have an impact on both female and male fertility, as well as IVF outcomes.