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The Lovin' Clock
By Ralph Alterowitz
I don’t understand it,” he said. “In the morning, I can feel hot and want to make love. But in the evening, forget it. After dinner, I gradually run out of steam. By 9 or 10 P.M., I am ready for bed. In fact, I’m straining to stay awake until then. Unfortunately, my wife is completely the opposite. She’s awake in the evening and not in the morning.”
A prostate patient made this comment during one of our recent “The Lovin’ Ain’t Over” talks to a support group. His situation is not unusual.
Man’s body clock regulates sleep cycles among other bodily functions. As we get older, our body clocks shift backward. People in their twenties can go to sleep late at night or early morning and easily sleep until 11 a.m. or 12 noon. As people grow older, however, their body clock shifts backward. So by the time people are in their sixties, the body clock has changed. Older people find they are wide-awake about 6 A.M. and have difficulty going back to sleep. Between feeling tired and waking up early, their body clocks are telling them to go to bed by about 10 P.M.
With this fact, it is possible to understand that, compared to one’s early years, when you go to bed at 11 P.M. or midnight, eating dinner at 7 P.M. is like having a late-night meal when you go to bed at 10. Bodily functions have slowed, alertness has declined, and 11 P.M. is no longer a good time to work or to make love. Certainly, if you are in this situation, making love this late is not likely to be exciting for you or your partner. And if you follow the Viagra protocol of taking the pill 2 hours after a meal and waiting another hour, you will begin making love just when you should be ready to fall asleep. You can imagine what lovin’ will be like then.
Just as with other facts of life changing as we get older, the lovin’ clock must also change. The recommendation is to try a little creativity. Try having dinner and lovin’ earlier. Or, how about before dinner? Or after lunch? With some simple rescheduling, you can be more awake and better able to handle lovin’s physical demands and emotions.
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