Poor sleeping quality due to frequent erections at night

I cannot believe I found where others guys have my symptom. Anybody also have ear ringing with this?

I used to have this and now it is 80-90 % better, I wake up rarely and some night I dont have any, I used to wake up 4-5 times per night and have pain all day in back and penicil area, i used all different medication Baclofen (4 of them every night for 3-4 monts) ,ativan (anti depression, scary one) , cinitapride ( i read an article in Spanish article that this works but not for me), Valerian root  you name it, nothing worked except sleeping on a carpet and face down, every night I am on floor and no bed and it is almost 90% free of the problem, i think by doing this because it is uncomfortable for your body , you reduce the REM sleep, I hope this works for you also.

This seems to be similar yo my situation. Erections periodically started through the night about a year ago that would not subside. I need to get out of bed and try to urinate with the erection, which is not easy and takes a maybe 10-15 minutes sitting on the toilet.

I went to,2 urologists who had no good answer, even joked a little that they are accustomed to seeing men with the opposite problem, no erections.

I went online and found mention of SRPE, sleep related painful,erection. There are only a handful,of,articles on this. I saw one remedy was klonopin. i tried it and it helped immediately, though about 2 months later I am finding it not to be as effective as it once was.,

Using the klonopin makes me feel that the problem is in the part of the brain that controls erections during REM sleep. as klonopin inhibits brain function by enhancing the action of GABA neurotransmitter, this might make sense.

I rather not be on klonopin every night however and wonder if there is a healthier fix, besides the klonopin is not as effective as it once was.

Dismaying is the fact that neither urologist heard of anything like this, and these were very qualified urologists. I wonder if a different kind of specialty would be more familiar.... Sleep doctor's who,treat things like apnea, or a neurologist? Has anyone gone to one of these specialists?

Great post that mirrors my situation almost exactly, right down to the comments from the doctors.

How did you get hold of klonopin so easily? I've read about it in various SRPE reports but have not been able to try it myself.

I can't even begin to list how many different things I've tried to get rid of this or ease it. It's been going on just over one year for me. Please keep us posted and I will do the same.

Hello guys,

same problem here.

It started 3 month ago. I had a terrible month, than nothing, then it started again one month ago, but now is more painful. I'm a very spiritual guy, I actually actually meditate twice a day since 2005 but I still have anxiety problems, especially in the night. Now I'm into St. John's Wort and it worked very nice for a month (the month I mentioned before) but now the problem is back again.

I've tried: acupuncture, all kind of natural sleep pils, sex before going to bed, lots of sport during the day and nothing worked.

This week I'm going to have an osteopath session to see if he can do something to my spine, because I think that could be a nerve problem.

I've also booked a shaman (yes...) for next saturday. I'm really motivated to find a fast solution to the problem which is actually a living hell.

I'll keep you posted

Leo

...sorry I forgot that I'm also in psychoanalysis since june 2015: no results till now

I also forgot to say that, with me, everything started once I tried a very secret and dangerous tibetan meditation without a real teacher. This meditation is made by a combination of visualization, deep breathing and perineum movements to push the energy from the lower part of the body to the upper part.

It may be only a coincidence...

When I do my normal meditation (transcendental meditation) I started to feel, every time I do it, some involuntary spasms at the belly level.

Hi everybody,

nothing worked (both shaman and osteopath) except doing Kegel exercise during erection. Guys this really works in less than a minute for me. The erection falls down.

The problem is not solved but the syntom yes. That's something.

Hope this helps

I'm 54 and I've had this condition for about 5 years. After many consultations I've finally found a urologist who could diagnose the condition as 'stuttering priapism' (though the standard urological literature contains little mention of this as a night time condition). I pointed out that sleep scientists refer to it as sleep related painful erections (SRPE) and the urologist admitted there was little discussion between the two disciplines.
I am currently taking cyproterone acetate - it's a testosterone blocker. If I take 100mg per night, I can usually sleep 4 or 5 hours. NOT enough, but better than nothing. But the cyproterone gives me hot flushes, lowered libido, mood swings etc (or maybe the last one is due to the lack of sleep and anxiety). I have POSSIBLY had some success with acupuncture at the same time as cyproterone - I managed to reduce the cyproterone dose to zero for a whole week - but it returned immediately after i had sex.
I also find long country walks are helpful - 10 miles or more, on 3 or more consecutive days.
If you like more esoteric stuff, then chakra meditation helped me a little bit. I still feel sure ayurvedic medicine might be helpful, with its focus on energy in the body, but haven't yet found a practitioner who could help.

I have had this issue for about 6 years and finally got some (not total) relief from 75 mgs per night of Elavil, aka amatriptyline. This tricyclic antidepressant deepens your sleep so that your threshold for waking up is higher. I too have been to numerous doctors, including an acupuncturist, but almost all considered this a psychological problem and not a "physical" one. I also take 2-5 mgs of ambien about 3-4 nights a week as needed. The problem seems to get better/worse in cycles, although I feel like I'm in a long period right now when it's pretty intense. I would also mention that I took propecia for many years but stopped about 5 years ago. Not sure if that messed with my hormones. To everyone: please post anything that is helpful in coping with this problem. I am fed up with it.

Good to see a few different replies coming up about this. I first posted a few pages back and am still plagued with the issue nightly.

I have tried both kegels and reverse kegels when it wakes me up but they don't seem to have much effect unless I stand up.

Good to see a few different replies coming up about this. I first posted a few pages back and am still plagued with the issue nightly.

I have tried both kegels and reverse kegels when it wakes me up but they don't seem to have much effect unless I stand up.

I too have this problem, one thing I have found is that for me it is affected by what I eat, if I don't eat a lot and make sure I am not constipated at all I sleep a lot better and only wake up once or twice. Taking spyllium husk can help too as it helps keep me regular.

For all you fellow sufferers: I have had SRPE for about 5 years. It's the pits! However, I have found that 15mg of Baclofen + 0.25mg of Clonazapam give me a decent sleep (the erections happen but are less troublesome until dawn). If I mess with the dose, even reducing the Baclofen to 12.5mg, I might as well stay up the whole night. I intensely dislike taking drugs, and I believe Baclofen has contributed to high blood glucose levels, but I can't get off it to test my hypothesis. This drug combo might not work for everyone, and I have no idea of the long-term impact on my body, but for the moment, until someone posts a "cure", it's the best I have come up with, and has been consistently helpful for several years (with no escalation of dose). If anyone has ANY other suggestions (hopefully of a more natural bent), PLEASE post them. Thanks.

Hello guys. I have this too. It's awful. Im 50 and have had it for over 15 years. After I got a vasectomy this condition went from annoying and troublesome to pure hell. The erections somehow plus the scar tissue gave me intense burning pain at night. I got my vasectomy reversed, which cleared out the scar tissue, and that kind of saved my life. It is still nearly disabling though. I find chair sitting, a lot of it, makes the problem worse. I would try cinitpride but can't get it in the US. Im tring to figure out if any drugs or behaviors cause this condition. Please let me know if any of you have had or done the following prior to symptom onset: mountain biked or cycled a lot, had prostate issues/bad infection, ever took SSRI antidepressants, Ever took finasteride/propecia, ever had a cystoscopy with a rigid cystoscope, have back problems.

Thanks guys. We are not crazy. This is a real and serious health problem but too rare for there to be any good awareness of it.

I take 30mg of baclofen and it helps tremendously. I discovered it online via a research paper on the web and asked a neurologist to prescribe it. I used to take klonopin but stopped because I don't want to be drugged up all the time and it was affecting my memory badly.

Mike

Thanks for writing, I have not been back on this forum for a while. In answer to your question, I had klonopin (clonazepam) on hand that I had taken previously for an anxiety issue. I still had some around. But as I said it does not seem to be as effective as it initially was. Though perhaps I need to up the dosage to 2mg from the initial 1mg dosage. Maybe I will try this.

I have done some research on this problem in the Medical literature (I am a biology professor so am familiar with reading the primary literature) and found in a number of papers that either clonazepam or baclofen, both muscle relaxers appear to be helpful for patients. Sometimes both drugs are used in conjunction.

Towards resolving this problem, I am scheduled to see a Urologist that specializes in erectile dysfunction in early December. I am hoping je has some experience with this problem, and if not I will tell him about whatnImhave read and ask him if he can prescribe Baclofen.

I live in Queens Ny and the urologist I will see is in Long Island and associated with North Shore Hospital I believe.

Just as a note, I wrote an email to one of the authors of a scientific article on the problem who wrote back immediately saying that his solution to the problem is baclofen. His article seems to suggest dosage from 10mg to 40 mg.

The disorder seems to be called SRPE, sleep related painful erection and the descriptions of patient's problems seem to be exactly like mine. Most patients say they need to urinate to get the erection to subside. Me too, for which it seems to be the same only way possible. I can get these erections 3 to 4 times per night.

Interestingly, though my issue maybe categorized as SRPE, My erections at night are not painful they are just annoying and disrupt my sleep because they do not subside until urinate which takes a decent amount of time, like 15-20 minutes since erections normally prevent urination (don't want to dilute the sperm).

Well that is all for now, good luck, and I will check in again very soon. This problem seems really crazy and is very disruptive to sleep.

Eugene