Well guys, we all know its true and our ladies know it too. But what exactly is the reason for the rising every morning? Fueled by dreams…gravitation forces on a prone body… nighttime blood pressure fluctuations… or an evolutionary strategy to procreate before taking a chance on becoming lion-chow during the day?
What is it?
[Moderator Hat ON]
To General Questions forum.
[Moderator Hat OFF]
Yum. Morning wood…
I wouldn’t have posted my reply if I’d known this thread was going to wind up in GQ.
It’s because we gotta pee. We’ve been holding it for hours. Some guys get horny in the morning, sure, but I will be the overwhelming majority is because we gotta drain the main vein.
Hugh Jass, that makes sense. Nature playing a dirty trick by making it very difficult to pee because we have to pee?
Nah, its because testosterone spikes in the morning. Why this is, I don’t know, but it likely has to do with the sleep cycle. Perhaps one of the MDs will be around to offer a more in-depth answer.
For me I only wake up with morning wood when I have to pee.
I think every guy has had the experience of getting an erection because of having to hold back urine for a long time. I assume there’s a connection between clamping down on that sphincter, and restricting the blood flow out of the penis.
Didn’t anyone else watch Beavis and Butt-head? The Morning Wood Fairy comes out of the TV…
IIRC (and IANAD), erections associated with full bladders occur because the bladder fills and applies pressure to the prostate. This pressure on the prostate “feels good” and stimulates the brain to produce an erection -
(TMI WARNING! TMI WARNING!)
This feeling that occurs when the pressure is applied to the prostate is why, if a man’s partner is not too squeamish, and knows what to do and where to push/stroke, a finger in the backside at just the right time can greatly heighten the sexual experience.
(TMI OVER - Return to your normal activities)
critter42
I heard that you relax when you sleep, specifically whatever muscle that keeps blood out of your penis.
Hopefully someone will come along with a cite soon. I’m not googling “morning wood”
Well, I suppose I’m brave. I did google for it, out of curiosity.
Here is what I found.
I browsed several other sites but they all had the same information.
Men don’t pee, men piss.
Women pee.
Don’t believe Alice (in Elaella’s link). Part of the reason is because of the increased awareness of your genitals brought on by needing to piss.
The erection cycles are tied to the waxing and waning of the urge to urinate.
Peace,
mangeorge
Does no one remember this medically enlightening ditty?
You wake up in the morning with an upright stand
Due to urinary pressure on the prostate gland
But you haven’t got a woman so you jerk it off by hand
As you revel in the joys of masturbation!
In point of fact, nocturnal erections are important for penile health. [So saith my Urology prof back in med school, who, I’m told, was one of the bigwigs behind Viagra] Blood flow through the corpus cavernosa during the day is surprisingly minimal, but its endothelial lining is adapted to this (and isn’t metabolically active most of the time anyway - a sad life, really, all that waiting) Nocturnal erections -or any erection- provides much needed blood flow to replenish these patient, long suffering tissues. Our prof was full of cute exhortations for us to have erections as frequently and for as long as we could (well, the guys, anyway - a case of “smoke 'em if you got 'em”, I guess) and other tidbits.
In the long term, anything which interferes with nocturnal blood flow into the penis and/or erections will tend to damage the tissues and may result in -insult after injury- a decrease in erectile function. Of course injury to the vascular endothelium is hardly the sole or major cause of impotence, but… no, I can’t bring myself to say “every little bit hurts” in this context.
So, that morning wood is more than beaver bait. It’s the most important meal of the day. Um, wait… that came out wrong, didn’t it?
Nocturnal Penile Tumescence (NPT), measured with a cuff as you sleep, is part of a thorough impotence workup. The more general Penile Plethysmography (dressing Sir Richard in a stretch suit that better quantifies increases in volume) has been used for everything from impotence assessment to assessing the success of certain treatments of pedophiles (e.g. with abnormally arousing stimulus) It’s also a fun party game, but I can’t seem to find the rule book.
Oh crimeny, not again! Bravo, KP!
[from an old post]
The condition you speak of is the male body’s critical defense against damage to this rather highly prized appendage.
Have you ever woken up after sleeping with your ear folded under your head? Did you notice how painful this was? Now, imagine kinking your penis while you are asleep.
Prolonged obstruction of blood flow in the penile member could easily result in permanent damage to the erectile tissues of said organ. Periodic, spontaneous erections during the course of a night’s sleep is an excellent way of preventing this.
It is safe to assume that early menfolk without this vital autonomic response were weeded out of the gene pool rather quickly. A non-functional sexual appendage is a surefire ticket to extinction.
JuanitaTech, How you doing? 
As to the OP, I’ve always heard that erections occur a couple of times a night during sleep. This is to provide the penis with additional circulation. I get one every morning, whether I have to urinate or not.
I recall that an earlier thread on this subject offered the better theory that it acts as a kick stand to stop you falling out of bed.
OK, you’re all speculating, and you’re all wrong. Really, men, when you’re awake and have to take a wicked piss, do you get an erection? I certainly hope not, since with a full erection, you can’t urinate.
The cause of the morning erection has nothing to do with urination. In REM sleep, men get erections (women also show signs of arousal). You often wake at the end of REM sleep (proof: you’re in the middle of a dream then wake up). Thus, you often wake with the erection that was caused by the REM sleep.
As for sources for this, see:
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1518.html
http://www.teenhealthfx.com/answers/879.html
http://www.sleepmedservices.com/101CH3Answers.htm