New York, July 9 (IANS): Ladies, please take note! If you are experience a sudden dip in your sexual desire, try to sleep an extra hour tonight and reap its benefits between the sheets the very next day.

According to an interesting study, women who slept for an extra one hour than usual had an enhanced sexual desire next day.

Reflecting sleep's impact on sexual desire, each additional hour of sleep increased the likelihood of sexual activity with a partner by 14 percent.

The results, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, also found that women who slept longer on average experienced fewer problems with vaginal arousal than women who obtained less sleep.

On an average, the women reported sleeping for seven hours and 22 minutes.

"The influence of sleep on sexual desire and arousal has received little attention in the field but these findings indicate that insufficient sleep can decrease sexual desire and arousal for women," said David Kalmbach, researcher at the University of Michigan's sleep and circadian research laboratory.

"Sufficient sleep will act positively a woman's desire for sex and also the quality of intercourse through better genital arousal," he added.

For the study, Kalmbach and colleagues evaluated college-going 171 women who kept diaries of their sleep and reported whether they engaged in sexual activity the next day.

"The influence of sleep on sexual desire and arousal has received little attention in the field but these findings indicate that insufficient sleep can decrease sexual desire and arousal for women," said Kalmbach.

"I think the take-home message should not be that more sleep is better, but that it is important to allow ourselves to obtain the sleep that our mind and body needs," he added.

The researchers are now looking into if sleep disorders are risk factors for sexual dysfunction.