After a stressful period in his life, Brett McKay found that his total T “was 383 ng/dL and my free T was 7.2 pg/mL – close to the average for an 85-100-year-old man.” He set out to improve his levels naturally, using diet, exercise, and lifestyle. One key element? Sleep:
Most Americans today are sleep deprived, which may be a contributing factor to declining testosterone levels in men. See, our body makes nearly all the testosterone it needs for the day while we’re sleeping. That increased level of T that we experience at night is one of the reasons we wake up with “Morning Wood.” (If you don’t have Morning Wood on a consistent basis, you might have low T).
But if you’re not getting enough quality sleep, your body can’t produce testosterone as efficiently or effectively. In one study, researchers at the University of Chicago found that young men who slept less than five hours a night for one week had lower testosterone levels than when they were fully rested. The drop was typically 10-15%.
After 90 days, McKay doubled his testosterone. Definitely, sleep helps – for everything. But serious long-term testosterone deficiency is a serious condition and needs medical treatment, unlike mere low-T. This time last year, mine went down to 121 ng/dL, less than half McKay’s level – which is not surprising after 20 years of surviving HIV – but tipped me into a major depressive period before I worked out what was wrong. So figure out if you have an underlying medical problem first. Some things cannot be cured by sleep alone.
The Dish 