PENILE TUMESCENCE MONITORING DURING MORNING NAPS TO ASSESS MALE ERECTILE FUNCTIONING - AN INITIAL STUDY OF HEALTHY-MEN OF VARIED AGES

Whether sleep erections occurred during morning naps (preceded by mode st sleep deprivation) in healthy men whose ages were representative of clients in sexual health clinics was assessed. Subjects (N = 30) redu ced their normal sleep time to increase the likelihood that they would experience rapid eye movement (REM) sleep [closely associated with no cturnal penile tumescence (NPT)]. They then reported to an outpatient psychophysiological laboratory for an early morning nap, during which sleep and penile tumescence measures were recorded continuously. All s ubjects were able to sleep during at least 1 of their 2 recording sess ions, 24 (80%) experienced REM sleep, and 22 (73%) experienced tumesce nce episodes consistent with previous NPT studies. The magnitude of th ese erections could reduce concerns about the presence of organic path ology, and obviate the need for an NPT study. Results suggest that mon itoring tumescence during naps may be useful as an inexpensive and con venient screening approach in the assessment of male erectile function ing.