There are many fallacies and myths about why men occasionally wake up with an erection and yet it has nothing to do with either repressed emotions that are supposedly expressed during dreams or the fact of having had especially sexually stimulating dreams.
Morning erection, known clinically as nocturnal penile tumescence, is a physiological phenomenon that is covered in taboos and shame and that, however, tells us about the normal functioning of the nervous system in men. Next we will see why it occurs.
Although men think about sex an average of 30 times a day, and tend to give more importance to the frequency with which they have intimate relations, the morning erection is not exactly due to sexual desire, nor is it experienced through an erotic dream Its origin has to do with some unconscious and physiological processes that appear while sleeping
Thus, in the vast majority of cases it is a natural physical mechanism that consists of muscle relaxation of the corpora cavernosa and the arteries inside the reproductive limb, allowing a greater influx of blood and oxygen.
In this way, the penis grows in size in a voluminous way, going from 7 or 8 centimeters in a normal state to 14 or 15 centimeters in a state of erection. This process is a good sign of health and regeneration, since it helps to revitalize the tissues of the genital organ, thus maintaining optimal functioning.
Contrary to what is often said, morning erections do not appear when you wake up, but rather occur during the night, with a variable frequency of between 4 or 5 times and a varying duration between 20 and 45 minutes. erections They coincide directly with the REM sleep phase, one of the 5 stages of sleep known as “rapid eye movement sleep.” In it, it is possible for people to wake up for a few seconds due to high physiological activity, although these periods are so short that we almost never remember having experienced them.
Furthermore, in the REM phase muscle tone is drastically reduced, which means that most of our muscles are momentarily “disconnected” from the brain and relax completely; Parallel to this, physiological activity increases which explains why the blood flow to the penis increases.
On the other hand, during sleep testosterone levels multiply, reaching its maximum during the first hour of the morning. This fact, added to the accumulation of urine in the bladder, slightly stimulates an erection.
Should we be worried about the morning erection?
As we have already mentioned previously, this is another concern that confuses some men a lot. Some see it as a problem, but it is actually a good sign.
Anyone who is in good health will experience erections quite consistently throughout their sleep. The greatest exponent of this phenomenon It is fulfilled in the ages of adolescence, between 13 and 15 years old a stage in which the male sex spends more than 35% of sleep in an erect state.
The absence of this type of awakenings is usually a direct symptom of poor erectile function normally associated with bad daily habits (poor eating, sedentary lifestyle, smoking) or other types of more serious ailments that will require medical treatment.
Considerations to the problem
We dedicate this last section for individuals who suffer from erection problems or, in other words, do not experience morning erections very frequently.
And the sudden loss of erection can be associated with the age or personal psychology of each man, and it is also usually very common with those males who are over 40 years old.
As some clinical psychologists and sexologists affirm, As we get older we lose sexual capacity This implies, among other things, that the cavernous walls see their sponging capacity decrease, which makes the erection less powerful and less frequent.
As a fact of interest, it has been concluded that up to the age of approximately 50 years, 80% of cases of erection problems have a psychological origin. Depression, stress, low self-esteem or lack of experience and difficulty in maintaining relationships with the opposite sex are within the range of these problems.
For experts the solution is relatively simple. One of them is to accept erectile limitation, accept inability, not submit to pressure from oneself or other people. Paradoxically, this can help the problem go away.
