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Hormone levels and sexual activity can profoundly effect your sleep. It doesn't seem to matter if it's too much or too little sexual activity - if someone doesn't like their situation it can disrupt sleep. Hormones can profoundly effect sleep, the most prevelent situations being researched and written about now are related to Menopause and the sleep-related hormone Melatonin.
Are you are going to bed at night and dreading a sexual encounter because you feel like it happens too much and you don't have much control over it?
Are you having trouble sleeping because your sexual organs are painful from too much activity?
Do you go to bed and worry about your sexual partner's sexual behaviors?
All of these can be considered as too much sex, from the point of view of dealing with insomnia. A person is likely to be unwilling to go to bed or go to sleep if they don't feel safe. This has obvious effects on the renewing qualities of sleep. People can also be affected by bad dreams and nightmares related to the invasion of their personal safety.
There is help, but it is likely to require visits with a counselor. For people who don't feel like they have personal control over their bodies, either they feel they owe performance to their partner or the partner may just take it whether a person is willing or not, there is likely to be an issue of abuse involved. It takes courage and hard work to overcome an abusive mentality (whether you are the victim or the abuser).
If you have to worry about your partner's sexual behaviors, whether he or she is sexual with you and/or others, again, this is a situation in which you need to reestablish control. Not necessarily control over your partner, but control over the things you are willing to endure and control over your own ability to say: That's Enough!
There have been many people who have written into this program promoting sex as a cure for insomnia. Given the culture in the United States, this could be an attempt to shock or express a feeling of being out of control rather than a genuine attempt to solve a sleep problem. On the other hand, there is a build-up of tension that sexual release can help - there is no question about that.
If your situation of too little sex is related to a medical or biological condition such as erection or vaginal dryness problems then the care of a health care professional is vitally important. These days, there is a lot of talk about Viagra as a solution to some erection problems. You may be having trouble adjusting to a condition that medical intervention won't help. Often that adjustment requires you to look at yourself and sexuality in a new way. For any of these, discuss options with your doctor and/or your counselor.
It is true that people have different sexual drives and that there are times in a person's life that they can't get their sexual needs met because of a break up or absence of a relationship. In these cases sometimes it's an absence of touch as well as an absence of sexual release. The most effective way to solve this is to focus on your own ability to control the situation - in a way that can satisfy your own needs and do no harm to others (see above). If you are with a partner, for both people to sleep well with sex involved requires satisfaction, pleasure, and safety for both people. It is self-defeating to have it be otherwise.
Having said that, if your insomnia problem is related to lack of sexual release you can find many ways to solve the problem. Sometimes it's learning how to take care of your own body, sometimes it's finding out how to start and maintain a positive relationship with a partner. Many times counseling can help with this.
Hormones are involved in regulating our body functions. This includes sleep. When the hormonal balance is out of whack often there is a sleep problem.
There is a balance of these two hormones that swings around every month during the menstruating part of a woman's life. Sometimes the balance needs to be adjusted due to a number of unpleasant symptoms, which include insomnia. To achieve this balance see your doctor or a practitioner of Altnerative or Oriental Medicine.
There is increasing awareness of the period leading up to Menopause that involves hormonal changes and women are complaining of insomnia especially middle of the night awakening. There can be help through some kind of hormonal balancing, whether done through nutrition, herbs, or Hormonal Replacement Therapy (HRT). If you suspect menopause-related symptoms, please see your health care professional and/or read some of the many books on Menopause that are coming out now.
Melatonin is a hormone that has been found to be linked to regulating the body-clock. People are able to buy it at health food stores and other outlets and are finding it sometimes helpful, sometimes not. The research is currently balooning on this particular hormone, partly due to its extreme popularity. As it is turning out, it seems that taking Melatonin is not the cure-all it was hoped to be. It is best to get all the information you can about it and to talk it over carefully with your health care provider before you use this as a cure for insomnia.
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