Does Masturbating Help You Sleep? What Research Shows

Does masturbating help you sleep? Many people say it does, but the studies that measured sleep are few and mixed, and some found no effect.

Masturbating isn’t shameful, and this guide doesn’t treat it as a problem by default. It’s for readers who rely on porn or masturbation to fall asleep and want another way to get there. If bedtime porn is part of your routine, our guide to how to quit porn covers the wider process, and this one stays with the night.

Masturbation and Sleep at a Glance

Question	Short answer
Does masturbating help you sleep?	Many people say it does, but the measured studies are few and mixed.
What do sleep studies show?	A 1985 lab study of 10 people found no effect. A 2025 pilot of 14 people found less waking but no change in how fast people fell asleep.
Is sex with a partner different?	Partnered sex did better than solo masturbation in the 2019 survey. In the diary, only partnered sex with orgasm was linked to better sleep.
Why do you feel tired after masturbating?	Some people report fatigue afterward, and prolactin rises after orgasm, but no study has tested whether that makes people sleepy.
Is it bad to masturbate to fall asleep every night?	It isn’t shown to be harmful in itself, but it’s worth asking whether you can fall asleep without it.
Does watching porn before bed affect sleep?	Surveys link problematic porn use and bedtime phone use with worse sleep, but they can’t show cause.
What helps you fall asleep without it?	Get up when you can’t sleep, try relaxation, and keep your phone out of reach. Sleep guidelines give the first two a weaker endorsement.

Does Masturbating Help You Sleep? What People Report

Many people say masturbating helps them sleep, but these reports describe how people feel, not what their sleep measured.

In a cross-sectional online survey of 778 adults, Lastella and colleagues asked volunteers how sexual activity affected their sleep. Among people who masturbated before sleep, 48.2% said their sleep quality improved and 49.2% said it stayed the same. For falling asleep, 44.7% said it got faster and 50.3% said it didn’t change. When orgasm was part of it, 54.1% reported better sleep quality, and men and women reported similar results for masturbation with orgasm (Lastella et al., 2019). The volunteers answered an anonymous survey at their convenience, so this shows perceptions, not sleep measurements.

Sleep also appears among people’s reasons for masturbating. In a US nationally representative survey run in May and June 2021, 25.7% of the 1,137 women and 21.4% of the 1,372 men who had masturbated in the past year named “to help me fall asleep” as a reason, and women were significantly more likely than men to choose it (Herbenick et al., 2023). Stress relief came up often too, with 36.2% of women and 36.7% of men choosing “to relieve stress.” Those are reasons people gave, not measured sleep outcomes.

Perceived relief also shows up among midlife women. In a US online survey of 1,178 women aged 40 to 65, nearly one in five perimenopausal and postmenopausal women said self-pleasure had given them symptom relief. Masturbation was rated among the highest of the symptom strategies in the survey, especially for mood changes and sleep disturbances (Lehmiller et al., 2026). Those are ratings of relief, with no control group, so they don’t show what happened to sleep.

What Do Sleep Studies Show?

The sleep studies are few, and their results are mixed. A 1985 lab study found no effect, a diary found no link for solo masturbation, and a 2025 pilot found less waking but no change in how long it took people to fall asleep.

A 1985 laboratory study recorded the sleep of 10 people, five men and five women, with polysomnography. The recordings were taken after masturbation with orgasm, after masturbation without orgasm, and after reading neutral material. The analysis of several sleep measures found no effect of masturbation on sleep (Brissette et al., 1985). Finding no effect in 10 people doesn’t prove there is no effect.

A 2023 study of 256 people, mostly students, completed questionnaires and a 14-day diary, and the diary analysis included 159 of them. Only partnered sex with orgasm was linked with a shorter time to fall asleep and better sleep quality. Solo masturbation, with or without orgasm, was not linked with changes in sleep (Oesterling et al., 2023). The cross-sectional part of the study asked about perceptions, and both men and women perceived partnered sex and masturbation with orgasm to improve sleep latency and sleep quality. The diary effects were small, and the sleep measures were subjective. The perception answers and the diary disagree on solo masturbation.

A 2025 pilot by Lastella and colleagues used objective recordings. Fourteen people from cohabiting couples (seven women and seven men, with a mean age of 29.9) took part in a counterbalanced design with three conditions: no sex, solo masturbation and partnered sex. Their sleep was recorded with a portable polysomnography system over 11 consecutive nights (Lastella et al., 2025). Compared with a night without sex, both solo masturbation and partnered sex reduced the time people spent awake after falling asleep and improved sleep efficiency. People also tried to sleep later after either activity. Sleep latency, sleep duration and subjective sleep showed no difference between conditions, and the authors called for research with larger samples and with people who have sleep disorders.

A 2022 systematic review of 13 studies in healthy adults combined them qualitatively, without a single pooled estimate. It found “some evidence” linking sexual function, sexual satisfaction and masturbation with sleep quality, but no evidence linking sexual frequency or sexual positions with sleep. Studies using more subjective approaches were more likely to report an association between touch and sleep (Dueren et al., 2022). Its searches ended in August 2020, so newer studies aren’t covered.

Taken together, the measured studies don’t show a reliable benefit for sleep. The objective evidence is one 14-person pilot and one 10-person lab study, and most of the rest rely on self-report.

Is Sex With a Partner Better for Sleep?

In surveys and the diary, partnered sex came out ahead of solo masturbation, and partnered sex with orgasm was the only kind linked with better sleep in the diary.

In the 2019 survey, 63.1% of people said their sleep quality improved after sex with a partner before sleep, and 59.0% said they fell asleep faster. Those figures are above the 48.2% and 44.7% reported for solo masturbation (Lastella et al., 2019). Men were more likely than women to report better sleep quality after partnered sex, at 68.1% against 59.1%. That is still perception, not a sleep measurement.

In a 14-day study of 171 women at a US university, longer sleep was related to greater sexual desire the next day, and each extra hour of sleep corresponded to 14% higher odds of partnered sexual activity (Kalmbach et al., 2015). Longer sleep also predicted poorer genital arousal the next day, though women who usually slept longer reported better arousal overall. This was a pilot with women only, and it looked at sleep affecting sex, the reverse of the question on this page.

Why Do You Feel Tired After Masturbating?

Some people feel tired afterward, and prolactin rises after orgasm, but no study has tested whether that rise makes people sleepy.

In a cross-sectional online survey of Chinese adults, collected from December 2022 to January 2023, 87.5% of the 930 people who had masturbated in the past year reported some fatigue afterward (Shan et al., 2025). The survey had no comparison group of people who didn’t masturbate, and it doesn’t say how strong the fatigue was. It’s a reported feeling, not a measured effect.

Orgasm raises prolactin, a hormone. In a 1999 laboratory study of 10 healthy women who masturbated to orgasm, prolactin rose substantially and stayed elevated for the rest of the session (Exton et al., 1999). A 2001 study of 10 heterosexual couples found a marked rise in prolactin after intercourse with orgasm in both men and women (Exton et al., 2001). Neither study measured sleep or sleepiness, so neither shows that prolactin makes anyone tired.

A separate problem, described in clinical terms, is post-orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS). The authors describe it as a combination of local allergic symptoms and a transient flu-like illness. In a 2011 study of 45 men who were suspected of having POIS, symptoms began within 30 minutes of ejaculation in 87% of men. A flu-like syndrome was present in 78% of them, and exhaustion in 80% (Waldinger et al., 2011). The study doesn’t give how common POIS is in the general population, so it can’t explain ordinary tiredness after sex. If the symptoms sound like yours, talk with a doctor.

If the letdown after orgasm feels more like regret than tiredness, that’s a different experience, which online slang calls post nut clarity. Why post nut clarity happens explains it.

Is It Bad to Masturbate to Fall Asleep Every Night?

Masturbating to fall asleep isn’t shown to be harmful in itself. No study has measured whether masturbating to fall asleep turns into a habit you depend on.

The frequency data come from a 2025 Chinese survey. People there who masturbated weekly to almost daily had a median Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score of 7, compared with 4 for those who did it once to three times a month. Their anxiety scores were also higher than those of the once-to-three-times-a-month group (Shan et al., 2025). Those sleep scores are self-reported, and the groups were compared with each other, not with people who never masturbated.

The authors suggested possible benefits at moderate frequencies, but they also said the cross-sectional design and the subjective categorization of frequency limit their ability to draw definitive causal conclusions. So the pattern is worth noticing without being read as proof. Instead of asking whether masturbating is bad, ask a few practical questions:

• Does it still work? If it used to help you fall asleep and now takes more to work, that’s worth noticing.
• Is it your only way to fall asleep? If so, it may help to build a second.
• Does it involve porn or long scrolling? If the session includes porn or a long scroll, the screen may be part of what keeps you up.
• Is it pushing bedtime later? The 2025 pilot found people tried to sleep later after masturbating, so check whether your bedtime is moving.

If porn or a long session is part of the pattern, is it bad to masturbate every day? covers the wider question, and is gooning bad? covers the hours-long sessions that internet slang calls gooning.

Does Watching Porn Before Bed Affect Sleep?

Surveys link problematic porn use and bedtime phone use with worse sleep, but no study has measured sleep before and after watching or quitting porn.

In a cross-sectional survey of 776 Italian adults aged 19 to 48 during the COVID-19 pandemic, problematic online porn use was linked with insomnia symptoms. Psychological stress and emotion dysregulation fully mediated that link, which means they accounted for it in the authors’ model (Musetti et al., 2022). Both measures were self-reported, and the authors said the cross-sectional design makes causal inferences impossible.

Phone use is a separate exposure. In a survey of 844 Flemish adults aged 18 to 94, six in ten took their phone to the bedroom, and texting or calls after lights out predicted worse sleep, particularly longer time to fall asleep, worse sleep efficiency and more daytime dysfunction (Exelmans & Van den Bulck, 2016). That was a cross-sectional survey of phone use, not of porn.

Among school-aged children and adolescents, a review of 67 studies found that screen time was adversely associated with sleep outcomes in 90% of them. The screens included television, computers, video games and mobile devices, and the authors noted that a causal association was not confirmed (Hale & Guan, 2015).

A 2024 survey of young adults in Rhode Island looked at insomnia and porn addiction together. Among 1,008 people, those who screened positive for insomnia had higher odds of screening positive for porn addiction, with an odds ratio of 2.35, but only among cisgender heterosexual men (Noel et al., 2025). These are screening results, not diagnoses. Porn addiction isn’t a DSM-5 diagnosis, and is porn addiction real? explains the evidence.

So these studies link bedtime habits with sleep problems, but none tests whether porn before bed changes sleep.

Does Being Tired Make Urges Harder to Resist?

Possibly, but the evidence is indirect. Better sleep goes with better self-control across 61 studies, and sleep loss changed food cravings in a brain-imaging study of 23 people.

A 2021 meta-analysis of 61 studies found that better sleep quality and longer sleep were related to better self-control, both between people and within the same person (Guarana et al., 2021). Here, self-control means controlling impulses and overcoming temptations in general, not resisting porn specifically. The authors called for more work on the causal process linking sleep and self-control.

Greer and colleagues tested sleep loss with brain imaging in 23 people. After sleep deprivation, activity in brain regions that evaluate how desirable food is went down during food choices, and the desire for high-calorie foods went up (Greer et al., 2013). That study was about food rather than sexual urges, so it’s an analogy, not evidence about porn.

For how tiredness fits into urge management, see why being tired matters.

How Can You Fall Asleep Without Porn?

Keep the phone out of reach, get up when you can’t sleep, and try relaxation. Expect a few rough nights while the routine changes.

Most of this advice comes from research on insomnia or general sleep habits, so treat it as options to try, not guarantees.

1. Keep your phone out of reach after lights out. In a survey of adults, texting and calls after lights out were linked with worse sleep, so charge your phone in another room (Exelmans & Van den Bulck, 2016).
2. Go to bed when you’re sleepy, and get up if you can’t sleep. This is a form of stimulus control. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) guideline suggests it as a single treatment for chronic insomnia, a weaker “conditional” recommendation (Edinger et al., 2021).
3. Try relaxation or mindfulness. The same guideline suggests relaxation therapy as a single treatment, also conditionally. In a 2019 meta-analysis of 18 trials with 1,654 participants, mindfulness meditation improved sleep quality compared with nonspecific active controls. It had no effect compared with specific active controls, such as evidence-based sleep treatments, though that finding rests on low-strength evidence (Rusch et al., 2019).
4. Keep the basics, but don’t expect them alone to fix insomnia. Sleep hygiene covers habits such as avoiding caffeine and daytime napping. One review found that the direct effects of individual recommendations on sleep are “largely untested in the general population” (Irish et al., 2015), and the AASM guideline suggests, conditionally, that clinicians not use sleep hygiene as a single treatment for chronic insomnia.
5. If you still want to masturbate at night, separate it from porn. Is masturbation without porn an alternative? explains that option.
6. Expect some rough nights. In a nationally representative survey of 1,541 Polish adults, sleep problems were among the withdrawal symptoms reported by 24.5% of people with problematic porn use. That was self-reported, and the study doesn’t show that porn use causes sleep problems (Lewczuk et al., 2022). For more on what to expect, see porn withdrawal symptoms.
7. Ride out a bedtime urge. Notice the urge, let it rise and fall without acting on it, and then choose your next step. Urge surfing walks you through the steps, and how to control sexual urges adds if-then plans for the hours before bed.

When to Get Help

Talk with a doctor if sleep trouble keeps going, if you get flu-like symptoms or exhaustion after ejaculation, or if you keep returning to porn despite trying to stop.

If sleep trouble doesn’t improve, ask a doctor about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). In a 2015 meta-analysis of 20 studies with 1,162 adults with chronic insomnia, CBT-I shortened the time to fall asleep by about 19 minutes and cut time awake after first falling asleep by about 26 minutes (Trauer et al., 2015). The AASM guideline gives a strong recommendation for multicomponent CBT-I in chronic insomnia disorder (Edinger et al., 2021).

Flu-like symptoms or exhaustion after ejaculation deserve a doctor’s attention, whatever the cause. If you keep returning to porn even after trying to stop, porn addiction treatment explains the options, and a therapist can help you look at what’s driving the habit.

If you’re having thoughts of harming yourself, or your mood is very low, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US), or your local emergency number.

The Bottom Line

• The sleep research is thin and mixed. Some studies found no effect, and one 14-person pilot found less waking during the night without any change in how fast people fell asleep.
• Most positive reports are perceptions. In one survey, about half of people said their sleep quality improved after masturbating, and about half said it stayed the same.
• Partnered sex with orgasm did best in the diary. A 14-day diary linked only partnered sex with orgasm to better sleep.
• The bedtime setup is the part you can change. Keep your phone out of reach, get up when you can’t sleep, and ask a doctor about CBT-I if sleep trouble keeps going.

TrueAlly’s guided meditations and daily check-ins can help you build a wind-down routine and track the nights you skipped porn.

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