Sleep and Testosterone

Care to guess the best way is to increase testosterone and growth hormone?  Increase your libido?  Improve your memory, mental capabilites and literally rebuild the synapses between your ears? 

You would probably guess that it has to be something that requires a huge amount of effort or expense, right?  Well, actually all you need to do is sleep, sleep, sleep.  While you're laying there lights out, your body is literally rebuilding itself in many ways, including hormonally:  your glands are pumping out testosterone and growth hormone and these, in turn, let your brain rebuild its neurotransmitters, strenthen those precious neurons and even add synapses. Sleep is your friend, my friend, and don't forget to read this link on Sleep Aids.

I hope that you'll never again look at sleep as a huge boring waste of time.  From now on I hope you'll see sleep as the most important time of the day where your body literally rebuilds itself hormonally and mentally.  Sleep, Exercise and the High Testosterone Diet: these are you greatest and truest friends.  

I. Testosterone, Erectile Dysfunction and Libido

While you sleep – that is assuming you have lengthy, quality sleep – your body ramps up testosterone production. Your testosterone levels are at a daily peak at about 8 am and then decreases to a daily low at about 8 pm. You need quality sleep to bring your testosterone back up to optimal levels. While you’re sleeping, your body literally turns on its Testosterone Engine and, like an IV drip, pours extra testosterone into your system in rhythmic cycles based on basic sleep stages. The more uninterrupted sleep, the more testosterone. It’s that simple.

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By the way, poor sleep leads to decreased libido and increased erectile dysfunction as well.  Every guy knows this.  But this is best exemplified by those who suffer from apnea, a disorder where a person temporarily has his or her airway cut off during the night leading to restless, distrubed sleep.  Research has shown that those with apnea have greatly decreased testosterone, libido and erectile function and it's all from inadequate sleep. And don't just get the idea that it's severe sleeping disorders such as apnea that effect erectile function:  researchers have found that even "shortened REM latency" and "reduced theta power", i.e. poor sleep quality, are associated with erectile dysfunction as well. [13] 

NEWS FLASH:  Those suffering from apnea or other sleep disorders should definitely consider green tea.  The oxidative stress from apnea typically affects memory and ability to learn. Researchers have found that green tea, at least in animals, protects the brain from oxygen-deprived states that occur in apnea and related disorders. Green tea for the rats in this study actually protected their brains and memory. [20]

So what do you do if you have trouble sleeping?  First of all, look at your waistline.  Being overweight - see this link - is associated with a variety of sleeping disorders.  Of course, you also need to make sure that you are avoiding significant lighting and stressful activities before bed:  all the common sense things your mom told you about when you were a kid are as actuallytrue.  

The idea that more sleep boosts testosterone is just common sense for us males. Every guy knows that after a good night's rest you wake up feeling good. Libido, strength, morning erections and general attitude - all symptoms of high testosterone - are all dramatically increased after sleeping well and long. And what we know instinctively has been verified by many studies. One recent study of older males, ages 64 to 74, found that sleep was greatest independent predictor of morning free and total testosterone levels. [1] 

For example, one 1992 study [2] of 67 healthy males between the ages of 45 and 75 found the following were all correlated to an increase in testosterone levels:

1. Sleep effeciency
2. Number of REM episodes
3. Duration of REM episodes
4. Decreased duration of wake time (from a disturbance such as apnea)

This study did not list by how much average testost changed for the study participants: the researchers only reported "statistical significance". However, from what I have seen, statistical significance translates to at least 20% when it comes to testosterone levels. Remember that 20% is 70 or more ng/dl for a low T guy and can definitely make a difference.

Another more recent study [3] of shift workers found that "high testosterone levels were related to satisfaction...[and]...fewer sleepiness problems. Moreover, high testosterone levels were also related to sufficiency of sleep and to being well rested after day sleep and to less disturbed sleep before morning shifts." Again, no average T-levels were given but statistical significance can reasonably be assumed to be 20% or more.

This is further confirmed by some of the studies that have shown the reverse: testosterone is slashed with disturbed or poor quality sleep. One study [4] of ten healthy, non-smoking, trim twenty year olds showed that fragmented sleep led to ZERO nighttime T increases. During normal sleep these same ten young men had average nightime testosterone increases of 20 to 30% or more. But with disturbed sleep their T flat lined at night. In other words, their T was frozen at daytime values. Of course, this is bad enough for someone in their twenties, but it is particularly unhealthy for someone in middle age. A similar result was found in a study [5] of 45 men with severe apnea, a fairly common sleep disorder where breathing is completely blocked. When these men began successfully using CPAP machines, to correct their apnea, their testosterone levels rose on average 20%.

By the way, the reverse is true as well:  low testosterone actually leads to poor sleep quality [18] probably because of the extra weight associated with low testosterone levels. So this is yet another reason to make sure you keep your testosterone levels up.

Sleep, Insulin Resistance and Blood Sugar

By the way, lowered testosterone levels are just the beginning of your woes with poor sleep. Other studies have shown that lack of sleep leads to greatly reduced glucose clearance, i.e. you become much more insulin resistant, and your immunity is whacked. [14]  For example, in one recent study scientists placed 11 participants in a closed environment where sleep, calories and physical activity could be carefully controlled.  The researchers found that as those in the study went from 8.5 hours of sleep to 5.5 hours, their blood sugar was significantly higher and their insulin resistance significantly worse. [21]  Follow-up results led to the conclusion that "our data suggest that reduced sleep quality with low levels of SWS, as occurs in aging and in many obese individuals, may contribute to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes". [28]  In other words, if you want to make sure that you have type II diabetes to look forward to, lack of sleep is a great place to start. And you get the added bonus of additional blood sugar levels aging your body at an accelerated rate as well.

Sleep and Immunity

 Researchers have long noted that animals that sleep the longest generally have the highest number of immune cells.  In fact, one recent study found that animals that slept more had not only more immune cells but decreased number of parasites as well. [22] The same kind of results have been verifed many times on humans. For example, one study found that participants deprived of sleep from 10:00 pm to 3:00 am had reduced numbers of natural killer cells as well as decreased production of interleukin-2 (IL-2). [23] 

Sleep and Neurotransmitters

During the REM cycles of the night the body also replenishes badly needed stores of neurotransitters. Particularly important is the rebuilding of seratonin and norepinephrine, which are critical neurotransmitters used for learning and retention, that are normally depleted during the day. [17] In fact, during REM sleep the cells that actually use seratonin and norepinephrine actually become inactive, although the brain to more effectively rebuild itself.  Again, one secret to brain power is quality of sleep.  (Kudos to Dr. James Haas and his must-read book Power Sleep, where he covers this and the importance of REM sleep in great detail.)  

Sleep and Growth Hormone

And, perhaps most importantly, growth hormone levels - growth hormone burns fat and increases lean muscle mass - are also tied closely to sleep. And growth hormone is one of your truest friends:  it directly and positively effects the brain and "mental agility" as one set of researchers put it. [6] Really Human Growth Hormone's capabilites goes beyond this and it is now recognized as directly improving learning and memory. [7] Yes, you can rebuild your brain even in middle age and beyond if you let your body squeeze out this precious hormone while you're snoozing. (For another way to churn out Growth Hormone, read this link on Interval Training.) 

And, just as with testosterone, sleep deprivation leads to no normal nocturnal Growth Hormone surge.  Zip. Nada. It's this simple:  if you deny yourself sleep, you get a drastically blunted Growth Hormone response.  One set of researchers summarized that "the nocturnal Growth Hormone surge is largely sleep-dependent." [8] That's pretty clear language for scientific researchers:  if you want Growth Hormone rebuilding your body and mind, you must have lengthy, quality sleep.

You might be saying, "Well, that only applies to those fools who engage in total sleep deprivation".  Au contraire!  One study [9] found, like testosterone,  an almost linear relationship between Growth Hormone and slow-wave sleep.  This kind of deep sleep becomes progressly more difficult as we age:  sometimes we just plain have to work at it.   

By the way, did I mention that Growth Hormone even stimulates additional testosterone production?  Growth Hormone creates a cascade of increasing IGF-1, FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone), LH (Leutinizing Hormone), which ultimately leads to increases in testosterone (and estrogen but proportionally of course).  The increases may not be huge but every little bit helps!

As if all that wasn't bad enough, the Dec 1 2007 journal Sleep found a strong correlation between low sleep levels and type II diabetes.  Previous studies had already shown that lack of sleep decreases glucose tolerance, decreases insulin sensitivity - can you say Metabolic Syndrome? - and increases sympathietic nervous system activity such as evening cortisol levels. The study in Sleep showed that apparently overloading the pancreas over time with excess insulin resistance due to poor sleep can lead to type two diabetes.  In other words, sleep immediately destroys your hormone levels and slowly destroys your blood sugar!  This is probably the reason that researchers have tied various sleep disorders such as restless leg syndrome, snoring and sleep-disordered breathing to increased rates of cardiovascular disease. [10] Although, it should be pointed out that Columbia University researchers discovered that those burning the candle at both ends, i.e. getting less than five hours sleep, caused themselves almost immediate cardiovascular problems:  elevated blood pressure and pulse rates,  which could be another reason that lack of sleep less is correlated so strongly with heart disease.  [11]

Sleep, Heart Disease and Erectile Dysfunction

Scientists have recently discovered something that should not be a big surprise:  lack of sleep is tied to heart disease as well.  What they actually discovered in a recent study is that the arteries of people getting low sleep levels (less than five hours) actually become significantly more calcified. [19]  In fact, the rule of thump now is that you get a 33% drop in risk for developing calcified arteries for each extra hour that you sleep. [24] Further verifying this is the fact that those getting the most sleep, greater than 7 hours, had a much lower incidence of calcification.

And, yes, calcified arteries are just what they sound like:  hardened, inflexible arteries that induce heart disease and erectile dysfunction.   Now noone has done a study yet directly linking erectile dysfunction and lack of sleep, but trust me that hardened arteries will be BAD for your sex life.  You want nice, flexible, expandable arteries that allow blood to flow into your penis.  

Sleep and Alzheimer's

Evidence is continuing to mount that lack of sleep helps lead to dementia. Of course, this is no shock because anything that leads to increase arteriosclerosis, inflammation and high blood pressure is bound to lead to troubles for your grey matter. In addition, scientists recently found that it also directly increases beta amyloid and the associated plaques that are so characteristic of Alzheimer's. [27]  You don't want plaque in your brain anymore than you want it in your arteries! 

Sleep and Inflammation

A 2008 UCLA study found that disturbing just a few hours of participants normal sleep led to significantly increased increased Inflammation levels throughout the body. [15]  One 2009 study showed that a key marker of inflammation (TNF-alpha) was increased by too little sleep as well. [25]

By the way, some markers of inflammation (C-Reactive protein and IL-6) were increased by too much sleep, so moderation is in order here.

The primary point though is that lack of sleep can be deadly due to increased inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, Alzheimers, autoimmune disorders and on and on.  Almost every nasty disease known to man is rapidly accelerated by inflammation. No wonder lack of sleep is associated with so many disorders and even some types of cancer!

Of course, over the long term this can be deadly:  inflammation is linked to heart disease, Alzheimers, autoimmune disorders and on and on.  Almost every nasty disease known to man is rapidly accelerated by inflammation. No wonder lack of sleep is associated with so many disorders and even some types of cancer! NOTE: If you have trouble falling asleep, then read this link for helpful ideas.

Sleep and Blood Pressure

Scientists are just now learning the close link between sleep and blood pressure. One example is insomnia, which is correlated with both heart disease and heart failure.  Researchers in a 2009 study have found one reason why:  it raises nighttime blood pressures which could be deadly. [26] The lead researcher for this study explained, "Whereas blood pressure decreases in regular sleepers and gives their heart a rest, insomnia provokes higher nighttime blood pressure that can cause long-term cardiovascular risks and damage the heart".

Sleep and Efficiency

Many sleep experts believe 10 hours of sleep is optimal.  For one thing, researchers have found that cultures without all the insane busyness of modern life typically sleep ten hours.  Of course, to most of us that would seem impossible.  But it still pays to know their reasoning:  studies have shown that at 10 hours we run at optimum performance.  In other words, if you have times in your day where you need sheer speed and responsiveness, then 10 hours is what you need. 

In fact, some would argue that you are so efficient with this much sleep that it more than makes up for the loss of sleep.  Here is a quote from Dr. Haas in his excellent book Power Sleep that perfectly describes this concept: "[Researchers] have demonstrated that alertness significantly increases when eight-hour sleepers who claim to be well rested get an additional two hours of sleep.  Energy, vigilance, and the ability to effectively process information are all enhanced, as are critical thinking skills and creativity". [16] If you are looking for sheer mental and physical horsepower, sleep needs to be your engine. 

REFERENCES:

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3) J Appl Phsiol 95:2099-2103, 2003

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17) Power Sleep, Dr. James B. Mass, 2001, p. 41

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20) Amer J of Respiratory and Critical Care Med, May 15 2008, Goza

21) J of Clin Endocrin & Metab, Nedeltcheva, A.V. , published online ahead of print, June 30, 2009

22) Discovery, Apr 2009, published online 3/22/2009, "The New Theory about Why Animals Sleep: to Maintain the Immune System".

23) The FASEB Journal, 10:643-653, "Partial night sleep deprivation reduces natural killer and cellular immune responses in humans"

24) Women's Health, Jun 2009, p. 28.

25) Sleep, 2009, 32(2):200-204, "Sleep duration and biomarkers of inflammation"

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27) Science, Science Express Index, DOI: 10.1126/science.1180962, Published Online September 24, 2009, Submitted on August 24, 2009, Accepted on September 11, 2009, "Amyloid- Dynamics Are Regulated by Orexin and the Sleep-Wake Cycle", Jae-Eun Kang, et. al

28) PNAS, January 22, 2008, 105(3):1044-1049, "Slow-wave sleep and the risk of type 2 diabetes in humans"