Sara_Mednick

Sep 20, 2022 (Medium.com)

Health relies on the autonomic nervous system, and a great way to stay autonomically healthy is SEX. I’ll teach you about the science of sex. In short, more is better!

After reading my most recent book, my friend said that she could tell I was getting a lot of sex while I was writing it. And she was right! I wrote it during the pandemic, so my usual bi-coastal marriage problem was solved by moving to upstate New York for 15 months. My wife and I could finally sleep in the same bed every night and that meant MORE SEX, which was great for our relationship, sure, but it was also great for our sleep, our autonomic balance, our ability to deal with stress, and our emotional, cognitive, and psychological health. Stay with me here as I explain a little about how your health is determined by your autonomic nervous system, and that a great way to stay autonomically healthy is, you guessed it, SEX.

Your health is determined by a lot of factors, and one very important bedrock factor is how well your autonomic nervous system is functioning. The autonomic system has two branches. One controls your get up and go by speeding up your heart rate, your respiration, your access to energy and shutting down any slow maintenance functions like digestion. The scientific label for this branch is the sympathetic nervous system, but I call it REV because its REVs you up and ensures you are ready for any go-time moment. Given that that taut state of REV is energy-depleting and stressful on your health, the function of other autonomic branch is to maintain basic functioning of your restorative systems and specifically calm down REV in the moment and also across the whole day.

RESTORE’s job is to inhibit and reverse your stress response and help you recover precious physiological resources such as glycogen, body fluids, and blood flow. But RESTORE does so much more than take over the nonessential mind-body functions put on hold during REV’s domineering act (e.g., digestion, urination, sexual arousal, heart rate relaxation, and general lubrication of the eyes, mouth, and erogenous zones). While crusading and conquering occur courtesy of REV, our restorative, creative processes flourish via RESTORE, including the transformation of recent experiences into long-term memories, engagement in complex thinking, creativity, and regulation of emotions. It provides a safe space for your mind to wander, dream, and create. In a nutshell, when you elevate RESTORE, you enter the Downstate, the time and space where you recover from life’s stressors, replenish your resources, and get ready for the next challenge.

With prolonged states of REV and not enough RESTORE, however, you can end up in a state of autonomic imbalance that debilitates the entire system, causing the stress response to essentially become stuck in the On position. Autonomic imbalance, characterized by high blood pressure, high fasting glucose, high lipids, and elevated resting heart rate, has been associated with chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. When your body is stressed, tired, and unfit, the heart is forced to work harder to keep blood circulating. As a result, resting heart rate increases. Study after study has linked elevations in resting heart rate not only with a heightened risk of all the aforementioned diseases, but also with the chance of dying early. One study found that every ten beats-per-minute increase in resting heart rate increased people’s risk for death by about 20 percent.

This mountain of medical data draws a straight line from autonomic imbalance to an elevated, inflexible heart rate to chronic disease. BUT this is actually great news because both a healthy autonomic ratio and a strong, resilient heart rate are two things that you can control. In the Power of the Downstate, I explain all the many ways that you can actively achieve a great REV/RESTORE ratio through your breathe, sleep, exercise, and eating. But here I’m just going to focus on SEX.

Sex is a major regulator of your REV/RESTORE ratio in the moment of that actual act and in the post-orgasm afterglow. First, during the initial stages of getting turned on, the RESTORE system warms up the body and mind for sex, as any fight or flight–type thoughts or feelings can be a real buzzkill. But while RESTORE is critical for arousal mechanisms like erections and clitoral engorgement, REV takes over as things heat up, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, sweat production, and pupil dilation . . . this last sign being a universal signal for “Come and get it.” REV also handles the swelling of breasts, vaginal walls, and testicles; tightens the scrotum; and lubricates the tip of the penis. These actions all continue through REV’s final push toward the Big O.

The massive RESTORE rebound following all that exertion makes orgasms your gateway drug to deep Downstate bliss. Post-YES!, RESTORE covers your entire body in calm. Your thinking brain, which made a big push during the lead-up to the fireworks show, takes five, as it soaks in a warm bath of attachment-facilitating oxytocin and feel-good serotonin. And to all you insomniacs out there, to the anxiety-prone people who spend hours ruminating, to anyone who feels exhausted all the time, whether or not they get good sleep: sex is the answer.

I like to think of orgasms as blow darts, whisking you off on a nightly voyage to deep sleep. Whether you’re with a partner or Lone Ranger style, that great big romp in the hay activates all brain areas as REV rides that pony all the way to the finish line. Every cell in your brain and body is running at max capacity, like a one-person orchestra performing Ride of the Valkyries. After the fireworks finale, RESTORE shuttles in the deep comedown and it’s lights out in the theater, bring on the sleep show.

The reason orgasms are such potent Downstate instigators is because your vagus nerve, the primary information highway of RESTORE activity, is directly connected to your genitals, bypassing most of the spinal cord. (In fact, many people with spinal cord injuries can still have orgasms for just this reason.) If you’re wondering how scientists know so much about brain activity patterns during orgasms, it’s because people volunteer in pairs or on their own to get down in a brain scanner while a bunch of scientists sit in a control room making small talk. Awkwaaaaard!

And the reverse relationship is also true; having robust Downstate sleep that thoroughly switches off REV is good for maintaining healthy plumbing in the sex department. About four or five times a night, proerectile RESTORE pathways predominate, producing nocturnal erections and labial, vaginal, and clitoral engorgement. Sex experts sound like Downstate aficionados when they refer to these events as a “battery-recharging” mechanism for the sex organs because they increase energy-rich, oxygenated blood flow to those areas.

Curiously, vaginal orgasms may beat clitoral ones when it comes to RESTORative gains, due to stronger connections between the vagus nerve and the vagina (as opposed to the clitoris). Less is known about whether anal sex might lead to the same RESTORE perks, but intriguingly, vagal connections do reach the anus, suggesting that it’s possible. Along with improved REV/ RESTORE ratios, orgasms give your cardiovascular system a run for its money; help combat restless sleep; and just make you happy. And happy mood is associated with higher heart rate variability (HRV), a signature of strong RESTORE functioning.

Good sex and HRV are a two-way street because a healthy REV/RESTORE ratio is crucial for a good sex life. Becoming aroused requires just the right amount of REV; too little or too much and you’ll experience trouble becoming and staying aroused. High HRV is associated with better overall sexual function, and people with higher HRV tend to be the ones having more sex. Having a rich and plentiful sex life well into your eighth and ninth decades has secondary benefits for your brain, as studies have shown that executive function is higher in people who are more sexually active later in life.

In fact, restorative practices that increase HRV, such as Autogenic training, can help people increase sexual arousal. Check out instructions for Autogenic training and other HRV practices in my book, The Power of the Downstate. The audio version of my book might be especially helpful as I lead listeners through an actual Autogenic training session.

On the other hand, sex or touch that doesn’t feel right is the exact opposite of Downstate comfort, making you feel unsafe, on your guard, and everything BUT relaxed. Even slight touches, such as a stranger placing a hand on your back, or a colleague or boss giving you a too-often pat, can make you feel vulnerable and can even send you into a full-blown stress response due to the casualness with which they cross your physical boundary without consent. It’s up to you to decide the whos, whens, hows, and wheres of physical touch and intimacy. Understanding and training yourself to embody the rules of consent can be helpful for self-empowerment.

Here are some good rules of thumb for sexual interactions that keep the Downstate on the rise:

Say yes only when it is a real yes.

Say no when it is a maybe or no.

Change your mind at any time; that is, you might be a yes, and then start feeling weird and switch to a no.

When you take responsibility for setting the boundaries in a clear and honest way, physical touch can be a pleasurable way to welcome the Downstate.

In sum, sex is good for you. I know that shaking the sheets can sometimes be the furthest thing from your mind after a busy day that has sucked up your very last ounce of energy, but think about it as medicinal, like taking your vitamins, and have fun! With some creative planning you can even win the trifecta of the Downstate Derby by following these steps:

First, start your day with an intensive cardio training session to boost REV early in the day.

Second, make a date with yourself (and a partner, if available) to get down tonight.

Third, take a small dose of melatonin an hour before your Estimated Time of Orgasm (ETO).

PAYOUT!

Dr. Sara C. Mednick is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine and author of The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems (HachetteGO) and Take a Nap! Change Your Life (Workman)

Written by Sara_Mednick

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience UC Irvine, Books: The Power of the Downstate & Take a Nap! Change Your Life www.saramednick.com wwwsleepandcognitionlab.com

By JOCELYN GECKER May 11, 2023 (apnews.com)

A young couple sit on the beach in Huntington Beach, Calif., Monday, May 8, 2023. For years, studies have shown a decline in the rates of American high school students having sex. That trend continued, not surprisingly, in the first years of the pandemic, according to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that 30% of teens in 2021 said they had ever had sex, down from 38% in 2019 and a huge drop from three decades ago when more than half of teens reported having sex. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Situationships. “Sneaky links.” The “talking stage,” the flirtatious getting-to-know-you phase — typically done via text — that can lead to a hookup.

High school students are having less sexual intercourse. That’s what the studies say. But that doesn’t mean they’re having less sex.

The language of young love and lust, and the actions behind it, are evolving. And the shift is not being adequately captured in national studies, experts say.

RELATED COVERAGE

• – Pandemic sent high school sex to new low, survey finds
• – Teen interest in long-lasting birth control soars after Roe
• – Paltry sex ed in schools = Texas teen moms and dads

For years, studies have shown a decline in the rates of American high school students having sex. That trend continued, not surprisingly, in the first years of the pandemic, according to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that 30% of teens in 2021 said they had ever had sex, down from 38% in 2019 and a huge drop from three decades ago, when more than half of teens reported having sex.

The Associated Press took the findings to teenagers and experts around the country to ask for their interpretation. Parents: Some of the answers may surprise you.

THE MEANING OF SEX: DEPENDS WHO YOU ASK

For starters, what is the definition of sex?

“Hmm. That’s a good question,” says Rose, 17, a junior at a New England high school.

She thought about it for 20 seconds, then listed a range of possibilities for heterosexual sex, oral sex and relations between same-sex or LGBTQ partners. On her campus, short-term hookups — known as “situationships” — are typically low commitment and high risk from both health and emotional perspectives.

There are also “sneaky links” — when you hook up in secret and don’t tell your friends. “I have a feeling a lot more people are quote unquote having sex — just not necessarily between a man and a woman.”

For teens today, the conversation about sexuality is moving from a binary situation to a spectrum and so are the kinds of sex people are having. And while the vocabulary around sex is shifting, the main question on the CDC survey has been worded the same way since the government agency began its biannual study in 1991: Have you “ever had sexual intercourse?”

“Honestly, that question is a little laughable,” says Kay, 18, who identifies as queer and attends a public high school near Lansing, Michigan. “There’s probably a lot of teenagers who are like, ‘No, I’ve never had sexual intercourse, but I’ve had other kinds of sex.’”

The AP agreed to use teenagers’ first or middle names for this article because of a common concern they expressed about backlash at school, at home and on social media for speaking about their peers’ sex lives and LGBTQ+ relations.

SEXUAL IDENTITY IS EVOLVING

Several experts say the CDC findings could signal a shift in how teen sexuality is evolving, with gender fluidity becoming more common along with a decrease in stigma about identifying as not heterosexual.

They point to another finding in this year’s study that found the proportion of high school kids who identify as heterosexual dropped to about 75%, down from about 89% in 2015, when the CDC began asking about sexual orientation. Meanwhile, the share who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual rose to 15%, up from 8% in 2015.

“I just wonder, if youth were in the room when the questions were being created, how they would be worded differently,” said Taryn Gal, executive director of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health.

Sex is just one of the topics covered by the CDC study, called the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. One of the main sources of national data about high school students on a range of behaviors, it is conducted every two years and asks about 100 questions on topics including smoking, drinking, drug use, bullying, carrying guns and sex. More than 17,000 students at 152 public and private high schools across the country responded to the 2021 survey.

“It’s a fine line we have to try to walk,” says Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, which leads the study.

From a methodological standpoint, changing a question would make it harder to compare trends over time. The goal is to take a national snapshot of teenage behavior, with the understanding that questions might not capture all the nuance. “It doesn’t allow us to go as in depth in some areas as we would like,” Ethier says.

The national survey, for example, does not ask about oral sex, which carries the risk of spreading sexually transmitted infections. As for “sexual intercourse,” Ethier says, “We try to use a term that we know young people understand, realizing that it may not encompass all the ways young people would define sex.”

IS LESS TEEN SEX GOOD NEWS?

Beyond semantics, there are a multitude of theories on why the reported rates of high school sex have steadily declined — and what it might say about American society.

“I imagine some parents are rejoicing and some are concerned, and I think there is probably good cause for both,” says Sharon Hoover, co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland. Health officials like to see trends that result in fewer teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

“But what we don’t know is what this means for the trajectory of young people,” Hoover says.

RELATED COVERAGE

• – Why are teen girls in crisis? It’s not just social media
• – Other states are copying Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” efforts
• – EXPLAINER: The history behind ‘parents’ rights’ in schools

This year’s decrease, the sharpest drop ever recorded, clearly had a lot to do with the pandemic, which kept kids isolated, cut off from friends and immersed in social media. Even when life started returning to normal, many kids felt uncomfortable with face-to-face interaction and found their skills in verbal communication had declined, Hoover said.

The survey was conducted in the fall of 2021, just as many K-12 students returned to in-person classrooms after a year of online school.

Several teens interviewed said that when schools reopened, they returned with intense social anxiety compounded by fears of catching COVID. That added a new layer to pre-pandemic concerns about sexual relations like getting pregnant or catching STIs.

“I remember thinking, ‘What if I get sick? What if I get a disease? What if I don’t have the people skills for this?’” said Kay, the 18-year-old from Michigan. “All those ‘what ifs’ definitely affected my personal relationships, and how I interacted with strangers or personal partners.”

Another fear is the prying eyes of parents, says college student Abby Tow, who wonders if helicopter parenting has played a role in what she calls the “baby-fication of our generation.” A senior at the University of Oklahoma, Tow knows students in college whose parents monitor their whereabouts using tracking apps.

“Parents would get push notifications when their students left dorms and returned home to dorms,” says Tow, 22, majoring in social work and gender studies.

Tow also notices a “general sense of disillusionment” in her generation. She cites statistics that fewer teenagers today are getting driver’s licenses. “I think,” she says, “there is a correlation between students being able to drive and students having sex.”

Another cause for declining sex rates could be easy access to online porn, experts say. By the age of 17, three-quarters of teenagers have viewed pornography online, with the average age of first exposure at 12, according to a report earlier this year by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit child advocacy group.

“Porn is becoming sex ed for young people,” says Justine Fonte, a New York-based sex education teacher. She says pornography shapes and skews adolescent ideas about sexual acts, power and intimacy. “You can rewind, fast forward, play as much as you want. It doesn’t require you to think about how the person is feeling.”

IS THERE AN EVOLVING DEFINITION OF CONSENT?

Several experts said they hoped the decline could be partly attributed to a broader understanding of consent and an increase in “comprehensive” sex education being taught in many schools, which has become a target in ongoing culture wars.

Unlike abstinence-only programs, the lessons include discussion on understanding healthy relationships, gender identity, sexual orientation and preventing unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Contrary to what critics think, she said, young people are more likely to delay the onset of sexual activity if they have access to sex education.

Some schools and organizations supplement sex education with peer counseling, where teens are trained to speak to each other about relationships and other topics that young people might feel uncomfortable raising with adults.

Annika, 14, is a peer ambassador trained by Planned Parenthood and a high school freshman in Southern California. She’s offered guidance to friends in toxic relationships and worries about the ubiquity of porn among her peers, especially male friends. It’s clear to her that the pandemic stunted sex lives.

The CDC’s 2023 survey, which is currently underway, will show if the decline was temporary. Annika suspects it will show a spike. In her school, at least, students seem to be making up for lost time.

“People lost those two years so they’re craving it more,” she said. She has often been in a school bathroom where couples in stalls next to her are engaged in sexual activities.

Again, the definition of sex? “Any sexual act,” Annika says. “And sexual intercourse is one type of act.”

To get a truly accurate reading of teen sexuality, the evolution of language needs to be taken into account, says Dr. John Santelli, a Columbia University professor who specializes in adolescent sexuality.

“The word intercourse used to have another meaning,” he points out. “Intercourse used to just mean talking.”

___

Jocelyn Gecker is an education reporter for The Associated Press, based in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jgecker

___

The AP education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.