Early in the morning, levels of norepinephrine are suppressed, and testosterone levels are generally higher than at other times of the day. The result is the commonplace morning erection. What can erectile dysfunction (ED) researchers learn from this phenomenon?
For most men, particularly those who are younger, waking up with an erection is a fairly common occurrence.
So-called morning wood is actually a manifestation of a phenomenon known as nocturnal penile tumescence, or NPT, which itself is part of the normal sleep cycle. As we sleep, our brains cycle through multiple stages of REM (rapid-eye movement) and non-REM sleep. Dreaming usually occurs during periods of REM sleep.
ASAP Science is a series of short videos available on YouTube. Most of these videos run two to three minutes, and each presents an aspect of science in an informative and visually fascinating manner. One such video, “The Science of Morning Wood,” explains the phenomenon of morning erections in a way that anyone can understand.
Norepinephrine Suppressed
As explained in ASAP Science’s video, dreaming is not the only thing that sets periods of REM sleep apart from periods of non-REM sleep. To regulate your body and prevent you from acting out in your dreams, your body makes some physiological changes. Specifically, it cuts down on the release of a neurotransmitter known as norepinephrine.
Among the many functions of norepinephrine is erection control. This neurotransmitter can constrict blood vessels to reduce blood flow to the penis, thus making it more difficult to get an erection. However, during periods of REM sleep, levels of norepinephrine are sharply reduced, making it much easier for testosterone-driven functions to occur. Perhaps the most notable of such functions is erection.
3 to 5 Erections Nightly
Over the course of a single night’s sleep, a man with normal erectile function has three to five erections, thanks to NPT. So reliable is the NPT process that it is used widely to determine whether or not a man has physiological barriers that are preventing him from getting and keeping an erection.
The NPT test, also known as the stamp test or rigidity test, can be self-administered or done by a medical professional in a sleep laboratory setting. In the professional setting, “a simple ringlike device called a snapgauge” is affixed snugly to the penis at bedtime, according to WebMD.com. Because the snapgauge is made up of easily breakable film, it will break under the pressure of an erection should one occur during the night.
Self-Testing with Stamps
For self-testing, men often put a strip of postage stamps snugly around the penis, overlapping the stamps enough for a moistened portion of the strip to adhere to itself. If a man awakens to find the strip broken, it provides evidence that no physiological barriers to erection exist. This may indicate that any symptoms of impotence that are being experienced are being caused by psychological factors, which then have to be addressed to resolve erection problems.
In its explanation of the morning wood phenomenon, ASAP Science points out that suppression of norepinephrine during REM sleep serves a greater purpose that merely allowing erections to occur. By allowing stronger blood flow throughout the body, it increases the oxygen supply to all organs and tissues, repairing any damage that might have occurred and maintaining functionality.
‘Stop Sign to Blood Flow’
Ordinarily, norepinephrine is like “a stop sign to blood flow, but as you enter REM sleep, norepinephrine decreases and testosterone-related actions are now able to take place. This leads to vasodilation, or increased blood flow to the blood vessels, ultimately causing an erection,” according to ASAP Science.
While suppressing the flow of norepinephrine in men whose blood vessels are clear and without significant obstructions leads to erections, it’s doubtful that developing a drug to mirror this natural phenomenon would help men with impotence of physiological origin. In fact, the NPT test is used to confirm the presence of some type of physiological barrier to erection.
How Impotence Drugs Work
The popular impotence drugs on the market today work their magic by finding ways to manipulate the body’s chemistry in such a way as to promote blood flow to the penis, thus enabling the erectile function.
First introduced in the late 1990s, these drugs all belong to a family of medications known as PDE5 inhibitors. They get their name from their ability to temporarily block the effects of an enzyme known as phosphodiesterase-5.
To better understand how the PDE5 inhibitors work, it’s useful to have an understanding of the entire erection process, which normally begins with feelings of sexual desire that are registered in the brain. Such feelings trigger a release of nitric oxide, which acts as a chemical messenger that sets in motion the physical aspect of the erectile process.
Blood Flow Increases
This flood of nitric oxide to the pelvic region in turn activates a chemical substance known as cyclic guanosine monophosphate, or cGMP, which plays a key role in relaxing the smooth muscles lining the blood vessels of the pelvic region. As these smooth muscles relax, blood flow throughout the region, including the penis, intensifies. As blood fills the spongy erectile tissue of the penis, erection occurs.
The PDE5 enzyme helps to break down cGMP, so stalling the enzyme’s effects makes it easier to get and keep an erection long enough for intercourse to occur. The so-called PDE5 inhibitors do precisely that, temporarily blocking the breakdown of cGMP until the need for the erection has passed.
Viagra Was the First
Viagra (sildenafil citrate), developed and marketed by Pfizer, was the first of the PDE5 inhibitors to hit the market, being introduced in the United States in the spring of 1998. Other members of the PDE5 inhibitor family include Levitra (vardenafil), Cialis (tadalafil), Staxyn (vardenafil), and Stendra (avanafil). While all work in much the same way, they differ slightly in chemical structure. As a result, one of these drugs may work better in some men than in others. For those who need to treat impotence, it pays to give each of these drugs a try to see which works best.
At present in the United States, you’ll need a prescription to buy any of these drugs at your local pharmacy or to order them from an online drugstore. A generic formulation of Viagra, marketed by Teva Pharmaceuticals, is expected to become available in late 2017 under the terms of an agreement struck between Teva and Pfizer.
Order Online from eDrugstore
If you’d like to order one of the medications online, you might want to consider eDrugstore.com. A member of the Secure Medical family of Internet drugstores, eDrugstore is based in Tempe, Arizona, and sells only FDA-approved medications.
All medications purchased from eDrugstore are sourced from licensed U.S. pharmacies and are shipped discreetly to your home or work address. If you already have a prescription from your family doctor, you can fax or scan and email it to eDrugstore along with your order.
If you don’t already have a prescription, eDrugstore can arrange an online consultation for you with one of its contract physicians. You will first have to fill out a medical questionnaire that covers your medical history and recounts the symptoms you’re experiencing associated with your erection difficulties.
The eDrugstore contract doctor will review your questionnaire and write a prescription if he or she decides that it’s appropriate based on your symptoms and medical history.
Don Amerman is a freelance author who writes extensively about a wide array of nutrition and health-related topics.
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