All You Need to Know About Nocturnal Penile Tumescence

There are many responses that our body gives to events that inadvertently happen in us.

Faced with the fact that the man wakes up with an erect penis, there is no certain answer, but there are some hypotheses that can explain the reason for this.

There are many fallacies and myths about it, and yet it has nothing to do with repressed emotions or the fact that they have had especially sexually stimulating dreams.

This phenomenon is called Nocturnal Penile Tumescence, it is abbreviated as NPT and consists of spontaneous erections, that is, without sexual stimulation, that take place throughout the night when sleeping or just upon waking.

The most surprising fact is that medical science has not yet found the precise explanation of why this happens.And it is that even the fetuses in the womb of their mothers have these nocturnal and morning erections.

One of the theories is linked to the sleep phase called the REM-acronym for Rapid Eye Movement, that is a deep phase in which the eyes move quickly. It is conjectured, that the neurons responsible for releasing norepinephrine -a kind of brake or signal of “Do not pass” for the blood, regulate the tone of the tissues of the penis, allowing testosterone to exert a hormonal stimulation that culminates in an erection.

In this way, the penis grows in size, on average going from 7 or 8 centimeters in a normal state, to 14 or 15 centimeters in an erection state.And since sometimes one wakes up right in the middle of a REM phase, it is then that men often wake up with an erect penis.

Nocturnal penile tumescence has also been attributed to the action of nitrous oxide that is released in cells near the blood vessels of the penis, that dilate them, and generate greater blood flow in the area and, as a consequence, men have an erection while sleeping.

However, these two theories explain the mechanism that would make erection possible without sexual stimulation, but not its reason, let alone its purpose.

So far everything seems to indicate that these erections have the same purpose as that of unborn fetuses: to prepare the tissue of the penis and keep them in perfect condition for erection and, therefore, for mating. That is, it is an evolutionary question.

The facts seem to be simple, each erection causes the erectile tissue of the penis to increase blood flow and oxygenate the tissue; In the long run, this repeated action prevents the development of cavernous fibrosis, which is one of the multiple physical ailments that can cause erectile dysfunction.

In addition, this erection would have a less noble function: when the penis is erect, the bladder sphincter closes, the seminal ducts connect to the urethra and the urinals are disconnected to prevent ejaculation from mixing with urine, as this would decrease reproductive potential.

Nocturnal penile tumescence is a sign of good health

Some men are concerned about waking up with their erect penis or consistent erections at night, and they see this as a problem, but it is actually a sign of good health.

Anyone in good health will experience erections fairly consistently throughout sleep. Being the maximum life stage for this in adolescence ages, between 13 and 15 years, stage in which the male sex spends more than 35% of sleep time with an erection penis state.

A lack of this, is usually a direct symptom of poor erectile function, normally associated with some bad daily habits (eating poorly, sedentary lifestyle, smoking) or other more serious ailments that will require medical treatment.

Although there is no certainty why men have this type of response or reactions, what is known is that it is a sign that they are in excellent sexual health.