Low Testosterone and Sleep

Do You Suffer From Low Testosterone? Could Low Testosterone Be Causing a Lack of Sleep?

As men get closer to being middle aged, they tend to experience hair loss, declining levels of testosterone and less deep sleep. Sleep is very important for a person’s overall health and well being. This is the time a body rejuvenates and repairs itself. Studies completed by the National Sleep Foundation have revealed that 60% of adults have trouble sleeping many nights a week. Insomnia is classified as the trouble someone has falling asleep or staying asleep and this can be caused by many different things, including low testosterone.

Testosterone levels in men usually decline as they age and in some men the decreasing of the hormones may lead to decreased libido or energy. Testosterone, a steroid hormone, is mainly secreted in male testes and female ovaries of mammals. On average, the adult human male produces testosterone ten times more than the adult human female.

Recent studies have concluded that less sleep might be associated with low testosterone levels in older men. These results showed that older men who get less sleep at night have lower levels of testosterone the next morning. The sleep patterns of 12 healthy men between the ages of 64 and 74 were monitored for one week and their testosterone levels were measured one particular morning. It was found that the more sleep they were able to get, the higher their levels of testosterone were and the men with less sleep showed lower levels.

Experts recognize sleep as five different stages: stage 1- drowsiness, stage 2- light sleep, stage 3 and 4- deep sleep and stage 5- REM (rapid eye movement). Stages 3 and 4 greatly shorten as someone ages, so there is a tendency to get less deep sleep. Older people also get to the REM stage faster and stay at that stage longer. Deep sleep usually represents 10-20% of a younger man’s sleep and once reaching the age of 50, stages 3 and 4 lower to 5-7% and can totally disappear after the age of 60. The study above found the correlation between deep sleep and testosterone levels in older men. This particular associated does not exist in men who are younger due to the fact their neuronal circuits are remain sound. As men begin to age, these neurons are lost and the harmonization of cerebral activity has lost is effectiveness, which results in the decrease of deep sleep.