Monday, January 29, 2007
WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX? Questions & Answers by Kathleen Falken
"My husband conks out right after sex. Why is that, and what can I do about it?"
When Mark Leyner's book WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES? "Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini" came out in July, 2005, it was an instant success.
Publisher's Weekly exclaimed: "Urban legends and perennial wonders get a witty treatment in this lighthearted guide to largely inconsequential yet intriguing aspects of the human body.
"Leyner, a novelist whose writing appears regularly in the New Yorker and GQ, and New York physician Goldberg address food and the body (does coffee stunt your growth?), 'body oddities' (what are goose bumps?), folk remedies (does breast milk cure warts?), drugs (does marijuana help glaucoma?), bathroom humor (why can you ignite a fart?), medical media (is the show ER accurate?), old wives tales (can lip balm be addictive?) and aging (why do old ladies grow beards?). And then there's the sex chapter-definitely the one where the subtitle is most applicable, with questions like 'Can people in wheelchairs still have sex?' and 'Do the kind of underpants men wear affect their fertility?' The book includes e-mail interactions between the authors, which are sometimes funny..."
Now, Leyner has returned with a new book: WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX?: More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour.
Leyner, best known for his satiric novels THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE and MY COUSIN, MY GASTROENTEROLOGIST might seem an unlikely source of medical information. But after meeting Goldberg, an emergency room physician who is on the faculty of a New York teaching hospital, he has become the logical writer to pass on this much-needed info. As noted in their book's subtitle, it's often after a drink or three that people start asking things like: If I hold in intestinal gas, will I explode? If I hold in pee on a long car trip, will my bladder explode? If I hold in a burp or a belch will I blow my torso off?
In his Introduction, Leyner (with co-author Dr. Billy Goldberg) writes:
"It feels a bit different this time. When we were writing WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES?, we had no idea that anyone (other than our editor, wives, moms, and dads) would read the book. Shows what we know.
"Our little nipples book has sold more than a million copies internationally and spent twenty-five weeks (and counting) on the New York Times bestseller list. You have no idea how much we have loved this ride and how much we adore babbling on TV and drive-time radio, and especially in the makeup rooms where we shamelessly flirted with a succession of fantastic makeup artists at all the major networks. (By the way, Mark prefers the spray-on nozzle method, which he likens to being simonized in a car wash.)
"But a funny thing happened along the way. We quickly became aware of the fact that we'd barely scratched the surface. As we talked to people who'd enjoyed our first book, we began accumulating hundreds of new questions--some funny, down-to-earth, exotic, some embarrassing, some perplexing, but always thought-provoking enough that we knew we'd have to include them in a brand-new volume.
"We realized the gravity of the somber task ahead of us. We felt deputized. We knew we were now bound by honor and a fiduciary duty to you, our readers, to deliver unbiased, unadulterated, thoroughly researched, and unimpeachably factual answers to your questions. Humbled, but galvanized and inspired by the immense challenge that lay before us, we hunkered down in a windowless, antiseptic research cocoon, and made a solemn pledge to produce a new volume that would surpass the original and blaze new trails in the democratization of medical knowledge.
"Oh please . . . SEQUEL!!!!!!! Here it is . . . WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX?"
Barnes & Noble says: "Did the mega-bestselling WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES? exhaust your curiosity about stuff odd, icky, kinky, noxious, libidinous, or just plain embarrassing? No, you say? Well, good, because the doctor and his able-bodied buddy are in! Again! Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg, M.D., now take on the differences between the sexes -- those burning questions like Why doesn't my husband ever listen? or Why does my wife ALWAYS have to pee? And of course, Why do men fall asleep after sex?, plus plenty of others to keep you fully informed."
Full of smart and funny answers to an onslaught of new questions, all in a do-ask-we'll-tell spirit that entertain and teaches you something at the same time, WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX? offers the real lowdown on everything everyone wants to know about all things anatomical, medical, sexual, nutritional, animal, and mineral, but would only ask a physician after a few too many, like: Why do you have a "bionic" sense of smell when you're pregnant? Does peeing in the shower cure athlete's foot?
Is a dog's mouth clean?
Can you breastfeed with fake boobs?
Does thumb sucking cause buckteeth?
Do your eyebrows grow back if shaved?
Bigger, funnier, and better than ever, WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX? proves that in the battle of the sexes, as in most things, a little Q&A is a safe, effective, minimally invasive remedy.
And the answer to Why do men fall asleep after sex? In part, they say: "After orgasm, both men and women release the chemicals oxytocin, prolactin, gamma amino butyric acid (GABA), and endorphins. Each of these contributes to that roll-over-and-snore feeling. The hormone oxytocin is known to have several effects, including establishment of maternal behavior, stimulation of uterine smooth-muscle contraction at birth, and stimulation of milk ejection (milk letdown). It is also referred to as the "cuddling hormone" because it tends to elicit the need to be close and bond. In one study, oxytocin was shown to inhibit male sexual behavior in prairie voles. Maybe it's the oxytocin that makes us feel satiated and rested.
"GABA and endorphins also both have a calming effect and may make you pass out after sex. So why does the postcoital snooze seem to be so much more a man thing? This may come as quite a shock to some of you self-annointed Don Juans, but whereas men are known to ejaculate in various semicomatose states, such as during prostate exams and while thumbing through dog-eared issues of National Geographic magazine, women -- believe it or not! -- don't always have orgasms during sex, and that keeps them from producing all those other hormones."
If you can't find a copy of WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX? at your local bookstore, you can get one online. If laughter is the best medicine, then this book is a double dose. Get it! You'll be glad you did.
For more articles on psychology, dream-study, spirituality, sexuality and marriage therapy, including her popular "WHAT WOMEN WANT: Her Favorite Sexual Positions" see The GoArticles of Kathlene Falken
About the Author
Kathleen Falken has been a marriage counselor and sex therapist for over 25 years. To read more about modern marriage therapy, see SAVE MY MARRIAGE TODAY!
