Men/Health/Sexuality
Do You Get Morning Wood and What It Means If You Don’t
I receive a lot of questions about penises.
Most of the questions are about penis size and ejaculation, but here’s one I receive less commonly:
“Can you tell me why I wake up all the time with morning wood?”
Men are supposed to wake up with a hard-on.
“Morning wood” technically is referred to as “nocturnal penile tumescence” (NPT) or “sleep-related erections” (SREs). For simplicity, I’ll refer to them as NPTs.
When a man is in good health, his body is hard-wired for NPT. It is so normal that the presence or absence of morning erections can be an important indicator of a man’s overall health.
NPT occurs more frequently in younger men, but men of all ages can experience them.
Young boys experience erections throughout childhood.
Although people commonly believe NPTs are a sign of sexual stimulation, this is infrequently the case.
Spontaneous erections (unrelated to sexual stimulation) are a normal bodily function. Ultrasounds during pregnancy have demonstrated erections in fetuses. Young boys experience erections throughout childhood, long before the onset of puberty.
A review of early medical texts (and even theological records) tells us that the early doctors and theologians were interested in NPTs.
Old records inform us that they considered the ability to achieve an erection as a reliable indicator of vigor. Historically, erectile dysfunction was grounds for divorce, and judges sometimes sat at the bedside to observe for NPTs in a man accused of impotence.
Why do men wake up with a hard-on?
While there’s no deficiency of evidence for morning and nocturnal erections, nobody knows the exact explanations for morning erections. Researchers have put forward several theories.
The explanation for NPTs is likely multifactorial, i.e., the body is responding to several natural occurrences. Physical stimulation can play a role if your bed partner touches you, accidentally or intimately, but touch is not essential.
The relationship of NPTs to sleep
Good sleep is critical to good mental and physical health. I’ve always told my patients, “If you’re not sleeping well, you’re not doing well.”
It is useful to understand the nature of sleep. Sleep happens in 90-minute intervals throughout the night. During each interval, we pass through four stages of sleep, and they deepen as they progress. They terminate with a lighter, dream-phase of sleep, called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.
Restorative sleep occurs during Stages 3 and 4.
Men typically have five episodes of NPT during a usual eight-hour sleep cycle.
Are morning wood and REM sleep linked? Or is it just a fascinating coincidence? Researches have proposed many explanations, but no one knows what role REM sleep plays in NPT.
One thing is sure: A connection exists between NPT and REM sleep. Men typically have five episodes of NPT during a usual eight-hour sleep cycle or about one erection every ninety minutes. Each erection usually lasts from 25–30 minutes. This pattern is strikingly similar to the 90-minute cycle during sleep.
Each nocturnal erection lasts longer as the night progresses — just as the REM phases lengthen — and the association is that tightly linked.
Your health and NPT
Your mind has to be in harmony with your body.
Many things have to go right for you to achieve a firm erection, and a lot can go wrong. You have to release hormones. Arteries must carry blood to the penis, and signal transmission necessitates a sound nervous system.
Perhaps most important, your mind has to be in harmony with your body.
Testosterone reaches its highest level in the morning after waking from REM sleep. This increase may be enough to cause an erection.
If you have an erect penis when you wake, your equipment is working correctly.
As men get older, natural testosterone levels fall, and as it decreases, NPTs may decrease as well.
Erectile Dysfunction (ED) becomes more frequent with age. If you don’t regularly wake up with a morning erection, it could mean that your testosterone level is low, blood flow is limited, or something more serious is wrong.
Erectile dysfunction could indicate some underlying health problems:
- High cholesterol levels
- Stress
- Diabetes (or prediabetes)
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Depression
- Sleep disorders
- Heart disease
- Hormone issues
- Side effects of medication
- Lifestyle choices, e.g., tobacco and alcohol
- Emotional issues
NPTs are a sign of good sexual health
Pay attention to your morning wood (as if I needed to remind you.)
If you have an erect penis when you wake, you have a healthy blood and nerve supply to the penis.
NPT indicates that your equipment is working correctly, and you have the physical capability of getting and maintaining an erection while awake.
Morning wood is an indication of healthy blood and nerve supply to the penis. Most young men will experience morning wood several times per week. As men grow older, however, NPTs are less frequent.
If you stop experiencing NPTs, the loss of that familiar morning erection could be the first sign of a significant problem. You may need to consult with your healthcare provider.
Two situations may mean it’s time to make an appointment:
- You stop having morning wood — While it’s natural for episodes of NPT to occur less frequently with age, a sudden drop in frequency may be a sign of an underlying medical problem.
- You begin experiencing painful erections — If your erections last more than an hour after you wake up or if they become painful.
Pay attention to how often you experience morning wood. If you stop having them or you experience sudden changes, speak with your doctor.
Read an excerpt of Finally Out here.
Sign up for my newsletter here.