Is it normal to have an erection several times during sleep?

The rate of sex education in modern society is not high, which has led to many people still being ignorant about sex knowledge after adulthood, and not knowing much about some physiological phenomena of their own bodies. For example, many men will have erections several times when they sleep at night. This phenomenon makes many men panic and wonder if there is something wrong with their penis. So, is it normal for men to have erections several times when they sleep?

Human sleep can be divided into two forms: rapid eye movement sleep and slow eye movement sleep. During each night's sleep, every man's penis undergoes a physiological process of erection-fatigue-erection-fatigue again as the rapid eye movement sleep period and slow eye movement sleep period alternate. This is medically called nocturnal penile erection, which is a normal physiological process for healthy men.

First of all, the brain's role in regulating penile erection is the most important. When men receive visual, olfactory, tactile and associative sexual stimulation signals, the brain's erection center becomes excited, and then transmits the excitement to the spinal cord center, which then causes the penis to erect. Secondly, the spinal cord center that controls the erection reflex is located in the second to fourth sacral segments. When it receives sexual signals, the nerve impulse is transmitted to the penile corpus cavernosum through the parasympathetic nerves, causing the penile arteries to become congested and swollen, resulting in an erection.

The brain can strengthen or weaken the spinal erection reflex through consciousness. During the day, the brain's inhibitory effect on the erection reflex is dominant, so the penis is not easy to erect. At night, the brain's inhibitory effect on the erection reflex weakens. When the bladder is full, the pelvic nerves are excited, which can cause the spinal reflex center to be excited, thus producing a nocturnal erection.

Generally speaking, a young man's penis will have 4-6 erections per night, each lasting about 20-30 minutes, and the total erection can last up to two and a half hours. As age increases, the frequency and duration of penis erections will gradually decrease. This nocturnal penis erection is a spontaneous physiological phenomenon during sleep and is not subject to people's subjective will. Therefore, it is normal for men to have erections several times during sleep.