Association between sexually explicit messages and sleep health among French sexual minority men

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that sexual minority men (SMM) participate in sexting. While research has shown that engagement in the exchange of sexually explicit media is associated with poor health outcomes, no previous research has investigated its association with sleep health outcomes. This study sought to examine the association between sexually explicit media and sleep health among SMM, a population that suffers from poor sleep health. A popular geosocial networking application was used to recruit SMM individuals (N = 580) in the Paris, France, metropolitan area. Multivariate analyses, adjusting for sociodemographics, were used to test the association between the frequency of sexually explicit messaging and three dimensions of sleep health: (1) sleep quality, (2) sleep duration, and (3) two aspects of sleep problems. In multivariate analyses, those who reported engaging in sexually explicit messaging more were more likely to report getting less than seven hours of sleep (aRR = 1.24; 95% CI = 1.08, 1.43) compared with those who reported engaging in sexually explicit messaging less. No significant associations were found between sexting and sleep quality or reporting sleep problems. Sexually explicit messaging was associated with shorter sleep duration. Intervention targeted at individuals who sext could potentially improve sleep health outcomes.

Keywords:

• sexually explicit messaging
• sexting
• sleep health
• gay men’s health
• sexual minority men (SMM)

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Dr. Dustin Duncan’s New York University School of Medicine Startup Research Fund. We thank the translators and participants of this study who contributed to the project. We thank Noah Kreski and Jace Morganstein for assisting in the development, translation and management of the survey used in the current study. We also thank Susan Redline, MD, MPH, for providing edits to an earlier version of the manuscript.