What is Morning Wood?
Morning Wood means penis erection in men when they wake up in the morning. It is also known as morning boner, morning erection, and nocturnal erection. It is referred to as "Nocturnal Penile Tumescence'' or NPT in medical terms.
Causes of Morning Wood
Following are some theories to explain morning boner causes, but strong medical evidence does not back them:
Hormonal Changes Causes Morning Wood:
Testosterone secretion is the highest immediately after you wake up. It can cause morning erection even in the absence of sexual stimulation. This is also why the frequency of morning boners decreases as men grow older because testosterone secretion in the body decreases with increasing age.
Physical Contact With Your Partner Results in Morning Wood:
You might be sleeping, but your body's other senses are still active. So you may get a morning erection from an accidental touch or graze of the penis with your partner's genitals.
Relaxed State of Brain Can Cause:
When you are awake, your brain is very active and aware of the surroundings. It releases hormones to avoid random penis erections unless you have a sexual encounter. However, when you are sleeping, the brain is relaxed and cannot release hormones to suppress the morning erection.
Also read: 4 Best Natural Testosterone Boosters.
Is Morning Wood Normal?
Yes, it is perfectly normal to have a boner in the morning. It indicates that neurons and blood vessels around your penis are healthy. Most men, on average, get 3 to 5 erections every night, but they are unaware of it.
Who Gets Morning Erection?
Men may start experiencing morning boner from 8 to 10 years. Some men may even get a morning erection until the age of 60 or 70. (However, a boner at 70 years is rare)
How Long Does Morning Wood Last?
You can have an erection for up to 2 hours while sleeping. However, most morning boners go down within a few minutes of waking up. While some may last for up to 30 minutes.
What If You Suddenly Stop Getting Morning Boner?
No morning erection or weak morning wood could be a sign of Erectile Dysfunction (ED). It suggests that your penis might not be getting enough blood supply for an erection. Another reason for this could be the improper functioning of neurons.
Further, no morning boner could be a result of the following medical conditions:
- Increase in blood pressure can lead to no morning boner
- Increase in bad cholesterol may result in no morning boner
- A high blood glucose level can defeat your morning boner
- Sudden weight gain can affect your morning boner
- Anxiety or depression affects your morning boner
Some medicines like painkillers and antidepressants may also prevent morning wood from happening.
In many cases, men experience morning boner but have ED. This could be due to psychological reasons. Mental health can play a significant role when it comes to ED.
In any of such cases, you should seek medical help.
Get Morning Wood Back Naturally
Below listed are few natural ways to get morning erection back again:
Eat Healthy to Get Morning Wood Back Naturally
Proper functioning of the heart and arteries is important to bring the morning boner back. Hence you should eat food having a high nutritional value like fish, fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
Include Aerobic Exercises in Your Daily Routine to Restore Morning Wood
Aerobic exercises like running, cycling, rowing, or playing a sport helps in this condition. Such exercises improve the blood flow in the body. This is also supported by a study published in the Ethopian Journal of Health Science.
Keep Your Body Weight in Check to Get Your Morning Wood Back
Obese or overweight people are more prone to diabetes and high blood pressure. They damage the arteries and block the neural signals, causing erectile dysfunction and further affecting morning wood.
Also, treating ED like Viagra and Cialis is not effective on people with diabetes. This reduces the chances of getting morning erection wood. Hence, you should keep your body weight under control to avoid diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.
Avoid Nicotine and Alcohol to Get Morning Wood Back Naturally
Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol adversely affects the blood vessels and, thus, causes poor blood flow in the whole body, including the area around the penis.
Nicotine present in cigarettes slows down the neural response to stimulations, resulting in Erectile Dysfunction.
To get morning wood back, you should stop consuming nicotine in all forms.
Also read: How To Get Your Morning Erection Back Naturally.
How to Stop Getting Erect Easily?
Here are some methods that you can adopt to stop getting undesirable morning erections:
- Meditate daily for 5 to 10 minutes to keep your nerves under control
- Wear comfortable clothes while sleeping to avoid friction.
What to Do With Morning Wood?
Ejaculation or morning wood sex is one way to ease down the morning boner. Some other practices that you can try are:
- Be calm and patient and let morning wood ease down with time
- Distraction with other more challenging thoughts
- Physical exercise
- Hot water baths
References
- Mick Carpenter, June 2018; Bonner, A. Social Determinants of Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing- Bonner, A. Social Determinants of Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing. Bristol: Policy Press. 2018. xxii + 351 pp £80.00 (hbk) £28.99 (pbk) ISBN 978‐1447336853 - Carpenter - 2018 - Sociology of Health & Illness - Wiley Online Library
- Jim Bigelow, January 2005; Anatomy of the Penis, Mechanics of Intercourse- Anatomy of the Penis and Mechanics of Intercourse (cirp.org)
- K P Jünemann, C Persson-Jünemann, E A Tanagho, and P Alken, July 1989; Neurophysiology of penile erection- Neurophysiology of penile erection - PubMed (nih.gov)
- K P Jünemann, C Persson-Jünemann, E A Tanagho, and P Alken, July 1989; Neurophysiological aspects of penile erection: the role of the sympathetic nervous system- Neurophysiological aspects of penile erection: the role of the sympathetic nervous system - PubMed (nih.gov)
