Poor sleep quality detrimental to sex life of women

Women with poor sleep quality are more likely to have sexual dysfunction than their peers who are sleeping better, a study reports.

The cross-sectional analysis used data from the Data Registry on Experiences of Aging, Menopause and Sexuality (DREAMS), which involved 3,433 women (mean age 53) presenting for menopause or sexual health consult at Mayo Clinic.

Sexual function and sleep parameters were evaluated using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised (FSDS-R), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Poor sleep quality was defined as PSQI score ≥5, while women with FSFI ≤26.55 and FSDS-R ≥11 were considered to have sexual dysfunction.

A total of 2,487 (72.4 percent) women were sexually active and included in the primary analysis. Of these, 75 percent had poor sleep quality, and 54 percent met the criteria for sexual dysfunction.

In multivariable logistic regression models, women with poor sleep quality were 1.48 times (95 percent confidence interval, 1.21–1.80) as likely as those with good sleep quality to report sexual dysfunction (p<0.001).

Meanwhile, among women with short sleep duration (<5 hours nightly), 63.3 percent had sexual dysfunction. Their FSFI total and domain scores were much lower than women sleeping >7 hours nightly (p=0.004), although the difference failed to achieve statistical significance on multivariable analysis.

Sexually active women were more likely to report good sleep quality compared with those who reported being sexually inactive (25.3 percent vs 20.5 percent; p=0.003).

The findings underscore that poor sleep quality may promote female sexual dysfunction, in addition to its myriad effects on health.