Some of the scientific findings are obvious, while others may contradict our intuition. The new research, published in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, is undoubtedly at the end of the spectrum, which is "counterintuitive to our intuition."
A team of evolutionary psychologists led by Gordon Gallup of the City University of New York found that women were more likely to fall asleep after sex than men. And what's the reason for that? Because if they do, they have a better chance of getting pregnant! Researchers say:
" 'Sex is nature's sleeping pill.' phrase is often used to emphasize that sexual intercourse can have soothing effects; however, there has not been much research on this effect. We found that women are more likely to fall asleep after sex than men, and that sleepiness after sex increases with orgasm in both women and men."
This finding seems contrary to intuition, because men more quickly fell asleep after sex, it is often thought (and even orgasm this post-disease syndrome is called, has been the subject of several jokes, and culture); however, I have a theory behind it is actually quite a few logical People in nature with an upright posture and bipedal movement which allows you to navigate in the most efficient way they evolved. One of the disadvantages of the upright posture was that it exposed the female reproductive system to a downward angle relative to gravity. This is not an ideal posture for holding sperm and therefore maximizing the chances of getting pregnant during sex. According to evolutionary psychologists, in order to overcome this situation, the "missionary position" became a universal intercultural position.
But evolutionary psychologists argue that evolution has one more mechanism for increasing the likelihood of pregnancy: seminal fluid equipped with properties resembling sedatives! This encourages women to stay in bed after sexual intercourse, which allows more sperm to be kept in the reproductive system, further increasing the chances of becoming pregnant.
To test their theory, the researchers collected data on their sexual habits from 316 undergraduates. They excluded people who were not heterosexual or had no prior sexual experience from the survey. Participants who said they had more sex during the day than at night were also not included in the survey, as the aim of the study was to understand sleep routines after sex. Thus, the sample of the study was determined as 128 women and 98 men.
Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of three parts: relationship status with the use of birth control methods, masturbation behavior, and their sexual history. Critical for the researchers were the answers the participants gave to the following three questions:
- After penile-vaginal sex, who usually falls asleep earlier, Are you or are we Partners?
- How often do you sleep after having an orgasm during penile-vaginal sex?
- How often do you sleep after penile-vaginal sex, where you don't have an orgasm?
Not surprisingly, both women and men noted that they fell asleep faster after sex, during which they experienced orgasm. However, women with or without orgasms reported that they were more likely to sleep earlier after sex than men.
The fact that no gender differences were found on the sedative effects of masturbation was a critical point for the researchers ' hypotheses. Women were reported to be more likely to sleep early only when they were fertilized. This reinforces the argument that seminal fluid has a sedative effect.
Some of the limitations of the study were not gone. One was that it had a relatively small sampling and contained only a correlational result. In fact, the correlational nature of the study stems from a broader critique of evolutionary psychology: many of the theories of Evolutionary Psychology are largely untested (at least by traditional methods).
The research also opens a window into the sex lives of college students. For example, the number of people who answered the question “always” about how often you have an orgasm during sexual intercourse was 50 percent among men and only 4 percent among women. The widest part of women, 49 percent, answered this question that they can experience orgasm in less than half of their sexual intercourse.
Moreover, the data showed that men masturbate more than women. Only 9 percent of men said they generally didn't masturbate for a week, while 4 percent reported masturbating more than 10 times a week. And 45 percent of women usually did not masturbate for a week. The proportion of women who reported the number of weekly masturbations between 6 and 9 was only 1 percent.