Sleep is great. We all love to sleep but did you also know that getting more of it can improve your love life? Well it certainly can and I am here to tell you exactly how.
Read on below to discover four ways improving the amount of sleep you get will improve your dating game…
Let’s start with the most immediate impact sleep can have on your dating life – your appearance. Looking good improves your confidence. And confidence is sexy. It’s as simple as that.
We all know that when we’ve had a bad night’s rest we don’t look our best. Pale, dry skin, bags under our eyes, swollen eyelids, pimples, wrinkles and a drooping mouth are just some of the tell tale signs of sleep-deprivation. Research conducted in Sweden involved showing participants images of sleep-deprived people alongside pictures of well-rested individuals – unsurprisingly the sleep-deprived group were overwhelmingly judged to be less attractive.
Not only that they were also judged to be far less healthy. And from a point of pure evolutionary survival someone who looks unhealthy is going to have less success in the mating game. Yikes!
So a good night’s rest improves your appearance. Don’t act too surprised, it is called ‘getting your beauty sleep’ for a reason.
A good sense of humour is essential when it comes to dating. We all know that. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to be cracking jokes every 20 seconds but it does mean you have to be awake enough to crack a smile.
It has been shown by researchers that our own sense of humour is not a static characteristic. The things we find ecstatically funny one day may not even trigger a chuckle the next. The reason for this can be due to a lack of sleep. Humour relies on high level cognition, lightning quick reactions in the brain, and a lack of sleep inhibits this.
Poor sleep slows how quickly our synapses react and how promptly neurological connections are made. In particular a lack of sleep impacts our ability appreciate verbal humour, such as your date’s witty one-liners.
If the person you found pants-wettingly funny on you first date suddenly isn’t as hilarious on the second date – chances are it isn’t all to do with their jokes – think about your energy levels, you may be too tired to appreciate them as you used to. Now, obviously sometimes your date will just be an epic bore. Don’t go blaming a lack of sleep every time.
Effective communication is essential to any relationship; it doesn’t matter if you are on the first date or about to hit your fiftieth wedding anniversary. Sleep deprivation makes individuals unable to empathise, short-tempered and reduces their ability to concentrate. In effect it makes us bad communicators. Being well-rested has the exact opposite effect. It improves our emotional intelligence.
The difference in how couples interact when they are tired has been studied by the Ohio State University, and the results were quite damning. Sleep-deprived couples not only argued more but when they did disagree they did so in a far more ‘destructive manner’. Often saying things in the heat of the moment that would be hard to take back. Couples where both partners slept well still argued but with less frequency. And when they did have disagreements these were shown to be less destructive in nature.
Arguments between the well-rested often involved less-barbed language, covered more constructive topics and importantly often importantly ended with conciliation. These so-called ‘productive’ rows involved both sides listening to each other, a sense of humour and an ability to see the other’s point of view. The sleep-deprived couples had ‘destructive’ arguments, where the exact opposite happened.
For more info on the impact good sleep can have on all aspects of your life, check out what the experts have to say at the – Sleep Advisor.
A recent study by the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that just one extra hour sleep a night increases the sex drive of a woman in a romantic relationship by a massive 14%. And not only does more sleep increased sexual desire, a growing body of evidence suggests that more sleep actually improves how sex feels. Great! The reason for this involve improved blood flow to the sensitive areas on a ladies body, allowing for easier arousal. Add to this a sleep-induced increase in the levels of androgen produced by the brain. Androgen being a hormone that plays an important role in sexual desire.
So yep, more sleep makes you want to have more sex and even better when you are well-rested sex actually feels better. Double win!
So there you have it, four ways improving your sleep habits can improve your love life. Spending more time in bed it seems will increase the chances you get to spend more time in bed. If you know what I mean.
You can thank me in the morning!