Rise and Shine!
A reader recently asked why men get morning wood. Healthbolt has the answer:
Erections are controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Translation: when a guy is relaxed, erections are most likely. Since you’re often most relaxed upon rising (from sleep), morning wood makes sense. There are a couple of other factors that contribute to morning erections, as well. The bladder fills during the night, and this places pressure on a spinal reflex that can trigger an erection. Certain stages of the sleep cycle also influence the body’s involuntary behavior (ding ding ding). And of course, accidental touch or exposure to particular stimuli can do the trick.
Also, you can listen to these two guys discuss the matter. They do have medical degrees, but they’re not about to let those pesky things get in the way.
Source: Dr. Drew (duh)
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POSTED IN: Your Body
33 opinions for Rise and Shine!
Mikeachim
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:32 am
“Morning wood.”
Bless you for this phrase.
I’m presuming for some of these reasons, women get morning wood as well, albeit on a much much smaller scale? (You know, with their….thingy?)
“Morning twig”?
Jordan
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:57 am
Simpler answer… erections can be caused by a need to urinate. What’s the first thing most guys do when they first wake up?
1smartbutt
Aug 27, 2007 at 11:49 am
Jordan: we open our eyes.
Janis Summers
Aug 27, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Thank you Sara…as usual, you’ve “straightened out” things for us very well. :)
asasdas
Aug 27, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Jordan: play with themselves?
Sara
Aug 27, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Mikeachim: if by “thingy” you mean clitoris, yes, involuntary arousal happens. However, the neurovascular mechanism involved in this aspect of female arousal is not as well-understood or studied as male arousal. http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/18/12/1382?ck=nck
subcorpus
Aug 27, 2007 at 2:38 pm
taking a leak is not the first thing guys do when they wake up on the morning …
at least i dont do it … most of the days … i drink a glass of water or a coffee when i wake up …
PS:: the name, email, webiste, does not appear above the boxes in the comment field … at least not in opera … they are the same red color as the back ground …
Mikeachim
Aug 27, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Oooh, you said a naughty word. Gosh.
*switches off irritating English Puritanical primness*
Yes, I meant the clitoris. (I guess it goes for other female erectile tissue as well).
Interesting link, thank you. And very technical. I knew women were complicated, but….yeah.
(And after jumping off into Wikipedia and other places, I now know how that-sex-drug-beginning-with-V works. Interesting. Although the idea of ending up with priapism as a possible side-effect…..not my cup of tea, thanks).
Sara
Aug 27, 2007 at 2:48 pm
@subcorpus - thanks for the heads up on that glitch. I’m looking into it.
@Mikeachim - *Switch* noted. :)
Mikeachim
Aug 27, 2007 at 2:58 pm
:)
By the way, I am also missing the headings in the comment submission box, and I’m using the latest version of Firefox. The headings are there if I drag-highlight them, but otherwise invisible….
Sara
Aug 27, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Thanks, Mikeachim. Anyone else? I’m trying to figure out which browsers this is happening on…
Sara
Aug 27, 2007 at 3:40 pm
@Mikeachim: P.S. Here’s a more readable discussion :) http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/sexuality/a/clitoraltruthin_3.htm
Mikeachim
Aug 27, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Ta.
(Over 100 multiple orgasms? I think I was born the wrong sex. *sigh*).
splat
Aug 27, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Wow, just the same question like: “Why must woman suffer through a period?”
Scott
Aug 27, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I have the same trouble Mikeachim noted using Firefox 2.0.0.6 and Konqueror 3.5.7 using all browser aliases.
Good article, BTW, nice short and easy to understand. So, ladies, we’re not just being horndogs at 2 AM. (Well, we are, but it’s involuntary. LOL)
steve
Aug 27, 2007 at 8:48 pm
With the grey background, looks like all’s well with the comment box.
And I also heard somewhere that a rather non-glamorous reason we guys end up with morning wood is so we don’t end up urinating while we’re asleep. Relaxation aids in that process as well, and part of the brain that controls bodily functions sets up some morning wood to prevent wet sheets.
tony
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Actually, guys that have very low testosterone levels don’t get morning wood. My levels test at 90 or below (childhood illness destroyed testes) and never had morning wood until I went on testosterone replacement therapy. Once I stopped that, never have had them again.
DiggUser
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:24 pm
I hate urinating in the morning because of this fact. I always miss.
DiggUser
http://www.chancechat.com
GreySpec
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I would have expected Dr. Drew to have answered this much better. The truth about this is correlated with the REM sleep cycle which is in rhythmic correlation with the circadian rhythm of the earth. This REM cycle climaxes every 90 minutes. It’s a well known fact among the medical community that morning wood is a direct result of waking up during a REM cycle. Think about it, you don’t ALWAYS wake up with morning wood. If it was a result of having to pee, or being relaxed then you would have it every day…
shilo
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:53 pm
theres a street in Maryland called Morningwood Drive. It also has a cross street named Archwood. just thought you should know
Andrew
Aug 27, 2007 at 10:53 pm
This is obviously correct… except for the fact that any NORMAL medical website would tell you that the male body has the highest level of testosterone when it wakes up in the morning. Hmmm… great website, just great.
AbandonedHero
Aug 27, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I also cannot see the text. I’m using Firefox 2 under XP. Firefox 2 under Mac OSX doesn’t show the headings either. Firefox 3.0a7 under XP shows the same issue. Hope this helps.
Lawrence the Photographer
Aug 28, 2007 at 12:26 am
This is rather interesting. I never knew it was due to so many factors!
Keith
Aug 28, 2007 at 3:15 am
Honestly, I did try to find out some of the reasons myself, but apparently I still haven’t got a clue of why it always happen to me every morning *wink*
sam
Aug 28, 2007 at 3:34 am
I can’t see the text either.
JWH
Aug 28, 2007 at 3:51 am
can’t see the text either…
found a problem in your style sheet in this line:
form#comment_form { background: #A00000; padding: 5px; color: #A00000; }
Background color and font colors are same(#A00000).
Sara
Aug 28, 2007 at 8:42 am
Great comments, guys. :)
Andrew, fortunately, this is anything but a normal website. But thank you for adding info to the post! ;)
Joe Levi
Aug 28, 2007 at 9:52 am
Maybe it’s because you just had sex with your partner the night before… you both stuck around, and nature wants a second chance to impregnate her by making sure you’re “locked and loaded” when you wake up next to her…
- http://www.JoeLevi.com
Mikeachim
Aug 28, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Oh dear.
We may need to evacuate this post and then bomb it from low orbit, people.
JimB
Aug 28, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Would it make sense for a male to get spontaneously erect at noon when our ancestors were likely out foraging with other males? We’re decended from males who got hard in the morning because of the likelyhood of being in close proximity to a female. Males who got morning hardons left more offspring than those who didn’t.
ivanrlynn
Aug 28, 2007 at 9:39 pm
1smartbutt: No I think we open our eyelids…
Mike
Aug 29, 2007 at 12:17 am
Hmmm, morning wood is being written about on healthbolt?
ur mum
Nov 9, 2008 at 1:37 am
god mikechim grow up CLITORIS CLITORIS i said it you fag
oh god morning twig.. that’s hilarious!
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