Morning erection is a phenomenon with uncertain mechanisms, but which has nothing to do with desire or erotic dreams. The explanation is actually more prosaic.
What questions do our children ask themselves about their health or that of their parents or relatives? Why Doctor asked several teenagers to discuss it among themselves and to establish the “hit parade” of their questions. Our editorial staff will respond to them throughout the winter holidays. Today : Why do boys get erections in the morning when they wake up?
Erection on waking up does not affect all men and does not necessarily occur every day. On the other hand, during the phase of “paradoxical sleep”, that is to say the phase of sleep where we dream, practically all men have an erection, which in fact corresponds to a reflex intended to oxygenate the tissues of the penis.
This means that the morning erections, upon waking, would only be the continuation of these nocturnal erections. They would only occur upon awakening if the sleeper wakes up at the end of a REM phase. On the contrary, men who have shifted sleep patterns or those who take sleeping pills, which will disrupt their natural sleep cycle, will not have a morning erection.
An erection 5 times a night!
Each night we have 3 to 5 sleep cycles that theoretically end with a REM phase, followed by waking up. The latter is at least at night but results in definitive awakening in the morning.
During these phases of paradoxical sleep, the body follows a sort of reflex program, without it waking us up, but which seems to have a physiological utility: incoherent movements of the eyes and above all a complete relaxation of the muscles.
And this is where the relaxation of the muscles of the corpora cavernosa comes in to trigger the erection. These muscles are usually contracted in order to block the influx of blood into the cavernous bodies which will inflate the penis. Awake and not aroused, men have their corpora cavernosa muscles contracted and do not have an erection, but REM sleep relaxes these muscles and triggers an erection.
Men, depending on the number of sleep cycles, will therefore have 3 to 5 erections per night, the last of which may occur upon awakening. Note that women follow the same program, in addition to discreet, with tumescence of the clitoris at each end of a sleep cycle.
Other factors play a role
This is a hypothesis, which is strong, but it is probably not the only explanation involved.
In the morning, the bladder is full with a more or less strong desire to urinate. If the bladder is really full, it occupies a large place in the small pelvis and tends to compress the inside of the lower abdomen and the prostate, which can contribute to an erection. A property used in a famous advertisement: “Guiness is GOOD for you! “
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