Sleep apnea treatment does not affect a person's sex life.

A study shows that sleep apnea treatment will not hamper your sex life.

Your sex life is unlikely to suffer because of sleep apnea treatment, according to a new study.

People with sleep apnea experience periods of disrupted breathing throughout sleep. This can lead to daytime fatigue, high blood pressure and other health conditions.

The gold standard of sleep apnea treatment involves going to bed wearing a mask or nosepiece with a hose that's attached to a machine that provides a steady stream of air to keep the airways open during sleep. This is called continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

Many patients who use CPAP believe it makes them less sexually attractive, which may make them less likely to comply with treatment, according to the researchers from Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago.

To find out more about how CPAP affects patients' sex lives, the researchers surveyed 52 patients who were prescribed the treatment. Of those patients, 27 were compliant (meaning they used CPAP more than four hours a night on 70 percent of nights) and 25 were not compliant.

All were asked 10 questions related to physical and emotional aspects of lovemaking, the researchers said.

After adjusting for other factors, the investigators found that compliant and non-compliant patients had similar sexual quality-of-life scores.

The findings, published Oct. 21 in the journal Chest, will be presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Austin, Texas.

"This study suggests that CPAP compliance does not impair sexual quality of life in patients with sleep apnea," Dr. Mark Rosen, medical director of the college, said in an association news release.

Erectile dysfunction is common in men with sleep apnea, but previous research has shown that CPAP improves erectile dysfunction in these patients, according to the college.

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Sleep Disorders May Lead to Marriage Problems, Study Claims

This article discusses a study that claims that sleep issues may lead to marriage problems due to under-appreciation. In teens, sleep loss reduces motivation to learn, emotional instability and inattentiveness. I wonder if this article may apply this knowledge to behavior in adults. 

Should we count sheep in order to count blessings? Ok, that's a bit hokey....but anyway...JR

If you feel underappreciated by your spouse, it may be because he or she isn't getting enough sleep, a new study suggests.

Sleep deprivation can leave couples "too tired to say thanks" and may leave a partner feeling as if they are being taken for granted, according to the findings by University of California, Berkeley researchers.

More than 60 couples took part in each of two experiments. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 56. In one experiment, couples kept a diary of their sleep patterns and how the quality of their sleep affected their appreciation of their partner.

In the other experiment, couples were videotaped as they did problem-solving tasks. People who had slept poorly the previous night showed less appreciation for their partner, the investigators found.

Overall, the findings suggest that poor sleep might make it harder for people to count their blessings and value their partners, said study investigator and UC Berkeley psychologist Amie Gordon.

"Poor sleep may make us more selfish as we prioritize our own needs over our partner's," she said in a university news release.

What can you do?

"Make sure to say 'thanks' when your partner does something nice," Gordon suggested. "Let them know you appreciate them."

Although the study found an association between poor sleep and less gratitude among partners, it didn't prove that sleep deprivation was the cause of the behavior in these spouses.

The study was scheduled for presentation Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans. The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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