Putting Men to Sleep

[James Brody]

I've heard women complain for years about their hyper guys needing a shot at bedtime. I stumbled across this essay by Larry David at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-...a-_b_3287.html

"...Well there's only one way I can get to sleep now. It always works. Sure, wake her up. That's just what every Jewish woman wants. Sex in the middle of the night. Go ahead. This I want to see.

"Honey."
"What. What do you want?"
"I can't fall back asleep."
"So why are you waking me up?"
"There's only one thing that'll do it."
"Are you crazy? Why can't you sleep?"
"You know…"
"Because of them?"
"Yeah."
"Come here, honey."

David, in a separate post, is a liberal worried about Hillary! See see http://timesonline.typepad.com/comme...weeks-ago.html).

I also thought of this from PNAS....

"Sexual activity and mating are accompanied by a high level of arousal, whereas anecdotal and experimental evidence demonstrate that sedation and calmness are common phenomena in the postcoital period in humans. These remarkable behavioral consequences of sexual activity contribute to a general feeling of well being, but underlying neurobiological mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that sexual activity and mating with a receptive female reduce the level of anxiety and increase risk-taking behavior in male rats for several hours. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to exert multiple functions in male and female reproduction, and to play a key role in the regulation of emotionality after its peripheral and central release, respectively. In the present study, we reveal that oxytocin is released within the brain, specifically within the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, of male rats during mating with a receptive female. Furthermore, blockade of the activated brain oxytocin system by central administration of an oxytocin receptor antagonist immediately after mating prevents the anxiolytic effect of mating, while having no effect in nonmated males. These findings provide direct evidence for an essential role of an activated brain oxytocin system mediating the anxiolytic effect of mating in males."

Should be great for disorders now hard to treat with what's already on the shelf, especially social anxiety and even paranoia! I understand a pill is promised in the next 4-5 years. You can buy nasal sprays on the Net...be careful of addiction! (No data, just suspicions...probably oughta get some and take a sniff before I post this!)

JimB

Reference:
Waldherr M & Neumann D (2007) Centrally released oxytocin mediates mating-induced anxiolysis in male rats. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.. 104(42): 16681-16684.