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Five-hour sleepers age a decade
Men who routinely sleep five to six hours a night have a testosterone level that matches that of a man ten years their senior. In terms of that critical aspect of wellness and virility, a lack of sleep ages a person by a decade.
Equivalent impairments appear in female reproductive health, and they are caused by a lack of sleep as well.
How does sleep shape testosterone production?
In men, testosterone levels rise during sleep and peak around the first REM episode, according to hormone studies from the 1970s. The daily rhythm means a large share of the day's testosterone is produced overnight. In a 2011 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Rachel Leproult and Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago limited healthy young men to five hours of sleep for eight nights. Their daytime testosterone fell by 10 to 15 percent.
Why are many hormones tied to sleep?
The brain's master clock and the sleep-wake cycle control the timing of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, which direct hormone release. Growth hormone surges in the first deep sleep of the night. Cortisol, a stress hormone, climbs in the last hours of sleep and peaks shortly after waking. Reproductive hormones follow similar daily rhythms in both sexes.
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