Contents:
- Medical Video: Sperm Count | Nucleus Health
- Why sleep deprivation can damage a man's sperm quality?
- Sleep deprivation affects testosterone production
- Sleep deprivation triggers an increase in sperm antibodies (ASA)
Medical Video: Sperm Count | Nucleus Health
The average man will produce at least 525 billion sperm cells in his lifetime and release at least one billion of them every month. A healthy adult man can release between 40 million and 1.2 billion sperm cells in one ejaculation.
But even though men can produce millions of sperm per day, sperm quality will depend on a variety of external factors such as your daily habits. Well, those of you who are used to staying up late or sleeping late must be alert. Because, lack of sleep is one of the factors that turned out to damage sperm. Plus, poor sperm quality can have an impact on your fertility. Of the 1 in 10 infertile couples, it is estimated that as many as 30% of the contributing factors are due to poor sperm quality.
Why sleep deprivation can damage a man's sperm quality?
Reporting from two different studies, men who lack sleep have sperm counts and fewer "cluster" sperm that are perfectly formed when compared with a group of men who get enough sleep - approximately 7-8 hours per night. Sperm belonging to men who like to stay up late is also found to be shorter than those of men who sleep 8 hours a day.
The two studies, one from Harbin Medical University in China in early 2017 and another from the University of Southern Denmark in 2013, only found a connection with deteriorating sperm quality rather than a direct causal relationship. However, there are several plausible theories to explain this connection. Here's the explanation.
Sleep deprivation affects testosterone production
Testosterone is needed for reproduction, and most testosterone releases occur every day during sleep. Researchers suspect that sleep disorders change the rhythm of testosterone at night, without affecting overall testosterone levels. But other lifestyle factors not taken into account in this study could also explain the causes behind lack of sleep which decreases sperm quality.
For example like this, most men generally choose to stay up late to complete their work deadlines. This stress from work can also explain why the quality of his sleep deteriorates, so that the quality of his sperm deteriorates. Stress has long been known to interfere with hormones that affect fertility.
On the other hand, men who lack sleep may choose to fill their time waiting to go back to sleep while smoking or drinking alcohol. Some people will smoke or drink alcohol and think it will help them fall asleep faster. In fact, alcohol abuse has a negative impact on the quality and production of sperm, while smoking interferes with sperm motility. And not only that.
In addition to slowing the release of sperm, other studies have shown that smoking can damage sperm DNA and increase the risk of impotence.
Sleep deprivation triggers an increase in sperm antibodies (ASA)
The team of researchers from Harbin Medical University suspect that the habit of sleeping late and lack of sleep can trigger an increase in sperm antibodies (ASA) which can damage the quality of healthy sperm.
Anti-sperm antibodies are proteins produced by the body's immune system. This is not an absolute cause of male infertility, but the effect is clear; the greater the response of your body's immune system to release these antibodies, the less likely the pregnancy will occur. In other words, your body tracks parts of this reproductive function as enemies and sends "natural" killer cells that contain sperm antibodies to counterattack.
Anti-sperm antibodies work by blocking the movement of sperm, making it harder for sperm to fertilize, and inhibiting embryo implantation. Therefore, sperm from men who have a high number of sperm antibodies will be difficult to reach the egg, and / or fertilize the egg, possibly causing infertility. Anti-sperm antibodies can also damage persistent sperm, and this can cause miscarriages.
Interestingly, this Chinese study also found that sleeping for more than nine hours also triggered excessive production of antisperm antibodies, just like night sleep for only six hours or even less.
