PENILE TUMESCENCE MONITORING DURING MORNING NAPS - A PILOT INVESTIGATION OF A COST-EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO FULL NIGHT SLEEP STUDIES IN THEASSESSMENT OF MALE ERECTILE DISORDER

Although nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) monitoring during full nigh t sleep studies provides valuable information in the assessment of mal e erectile disorder, it is expensive and inconvenient. With the goal o f reducing this cost and inconvenience, we investigated the use of pen ile tumescence monitoring during morning naps. Seven healthy male Ss a bbreviated their previous night's sleep and then came to an outpatient setting for a morning nap. Sleep and penile tumescence measures were recorded continuously during a 3-hr nap. All subjects slept well (M = 92.8% sleep efficiency) and experienced at least one sleep erection (M = 2.0) with significant circumference change (M = 37.3 mm). These pre liminary findings suggest that tumescence monitoring during naps may b e useful as an inexpensive and convenient screening approach in the as sessment of male erectile disorder.