Is it true that the propensity to fall asleep immediately after sex is mainly governed by bodily muscle mass, and that therefore non-muscular men would be less susceptible to this ‘problem’? What is the physiological mechanism behind this??
Does this tendency hold true for women as well as men?
I have never heard anybody make the assertion that the tendency to fall asleep after sex increases in proportion to muscle mass. It sounds like a myth to me.
Agreed. I’m not a muscular guy and I’ve never just fallen over and passed out after sex, but this sounds like an urban myth to explain some stereotypical or careless behavior.
My long-held theory is that any tendency to fall asleep right after sex is conditioned behaviour: if a boy gets in the habit of using masturbation as a way to fall asleep, or regularly masturbates right before going to bed, by the time he’s having sex with women his brain/body associates orgasms with sleep.
I mentioned this theory to my SO over the weekend, and he said it made sense to him, but I don’t have any other research or data to back up my idea.
In Surreal defense, I have read that muscle mass is the reason men tend to fall asleep after sex. It was British research findings, and there was a link to it on fark.com a week or two ago.
Well I’m skinny… and I tend to fall asleep quite fast after sex… so I’m one piece of evidence against your “theory”… and one in favor of misnomer’s theory.
Wouldn’t it also depend on how tired the guy was in the first place? If I have sex early in the day, it doesn’t ‘tire me out’, but having sex at 2 AM will prompt me to nod off shortly after ‘finishing’.
Apparently these scientists did a study on the postcoital sleeping habits of men in different cities in England. It’s good to see researchers focusing on such important topics.
Well there are several problems with the assumption here. The study is just comparing men to women, not men of varying muscle mass, so there is no specific evidence to show that muscular men fall asleep more.
It should also be pointed out that the pecentage of muscle mass may be part of the issue, so actual size of man may not be an issue at all. This means someone perceived as “wimpy” that is thin may actually have lower body fat, which could in turn qualify them in the eyes of the muscle mass claim.
So bottom line is, based on evidence from this acticle and study actual percieved muscles is not a factor.
Well, i can provide anecdotal evidence based on one case: me.
When i was in my early twenties, i lifted weights at the gym every day and did a lot of cario-vascular exercise too. I wasn’t huge, but i was muscular and fit.
Now i’m in my mid thirties, and i’ve lost just about all that muscle, i have some nice love handles, and i’m not at all fit. (That’s all gonna change, i swear! :))
And, for me at least, how quickly i fall asleep after sex is, and always has been, determined by how tired i am, what time of day it is, where the sex takes place, and even who i’m doing it with. I’ve noticed no overall change based on my levels of muscle mass or fitness.
This is a very erronous assumption and there is no evidence for this type of claim. There is also no evidence that most men/boys ever masterbate as a way to fall asleep, furthermore if they did it would be more likely to indicate a biological reaction at play if this was the case. Your theory also implies only men masterbate and it doesn’t answer the question of why they would go to sleep afterward. To say that they go to sleep because they go to sleep is a circular arguement.
It is has been medically known for quite some time that blood flow is the culprit in mens difficulty to properly function after intercourse. There are different theories on the specifics, but the basic premise holds true. It is not something that is intentional, conditioned, or otherwise. It is a result of a biological actions outside a mans control.
Evidence, schmevidence. This is purely anecdotal. It’s not unheard of for guys to masturbate (spelled with a “u” in the middle, by the way) if they’re feeling tense and having trouble falling asleep.
My theory only implies that men are more likely to regularly masturbate right before going to sleep. Every man I’ve ever mentioned this theory to agrees with me. Again, I never claimed that my theory was at all scientific. This is IMHO, not GQ.
I think you didn’t pay enough attention to what I wrote. If someone continually goes to bed right after masturbating, eventually their body will come to associate having an orgasm with falling asleep. That’s the theory.
I’m not sure where I fit in, I’m a ‘bear’ type guy, with a bit of musculature to my name. Sometimes, if the sex was particularly energetic, I’ll probably be ready to pass out. Sometimes not. It varies… in me at least.