Poor sleeping quality due to frequent erections at night

I'm new to this discussion, but I've been dealing with this for a decade and have found, through much experimentation, that the following things help: 1.) a low dose of finesteride, 5mg every other day or cut the pills in half to 2.5/day; 2.) lie on your side, then bend the you upper knee and place your heel flat on the mattress in front of your lower knee-a figure-4; now twist so that your shoulders are flat on the mattress and arch your back; breathe deeply and slowly about 7-10 times, increasing the arch and the twist with every inhalation; the erection will immediately fade; it may come back in an hour or two, but you'll get sleep in the meantime; 3.) sleep on your side with a small pillow right at the point where your hip and waist meet, to reverse the normal arch of your back when sleeping;It's not that comfortable, but you can get used to it, and it prevents the erection--or does for me. Try these things. I think doctors don't have the faintest idea what is going on. I was told there is no connection between erections and the back, but my own experimentation tells me that there obviously is.

I think this could be caused by medications or environmental toxins. We have several guys here who have taken SSRI antidepressants and Finasteride. I also think trauma to the penis or urethra could also be a culprit. Torquing during sex or damage from a cystoscopy. We need to create another thread somewhere or create a site where we can do a more comprehensive survey. One guy here, Eugene, created one. I mailed him mine over a year ago.

One thing I was doing prior to issue was taking a “herbal” enhancement drug that was effective in allowing me the ability to have sex multiple times in a night. As more information has come out about the risks of these types of drugs I worry that one of the ingredients was or was close to finasteride. After taking it recreationally for a few months I found myself starting to have a night erection that would wake me and also erections that would last longer after ejaculation. The staying power is great. The night erections ever since not so much.

John

My experience is a little different than most of yours. To start off, I am a perfectly healthy 25 year old bisexual male. My condition started right after having Anal sex for the second time. It was around April 2015 where I had anal sex for the first time. During that experience I remember that the other guy was inserting it and (I don’t even know how this is possible) I felt great pain in my anus and I went blind for a couple of seconds. It was the most strangest thing that had ever happened to me. That same year, around November, I tried having anal again with a male and he inserted it. I did not encounter any difficulties but a month after that encounter, this problem arose. I don’t know whether they are correlated but that is the most obvious cause in my case. Never took any drugs, don’t have any birth defects, or anything strange. I haven’t mentioned this to my doctor because it is somewhat embarrassing to talk about.

Could be an issue that impacted me as well. I was playing around with a prostate massager I got online and issues started happening soon after that time period. I wonder if some nerve damage could be the issue.

Hi Eugene,
I sent you an email. Ready to fill your questionnare.
Can't wait to share my story with you Eugene and all of you guys.
Take care.
JS

JS, and Eugene, I would like talk one on one is that okay??
-Santiago

I have this problem. What I do is put a container which sprays/squirts water by the bed (actually, it's a container I bought to put cream into so as not to go over the limit for hand luggage when flying but it could be something similar). It's best if this is left in the freezer during the day so that it cools down during the initial sleep. Then, when I get an erection, I spray myself and the erection disappears almost immediately. I also have a larger container to urinate into immediately afterwards; the relief/bliss I feel is almost always enough to send me right back to sleep. Luckily my girlfriend doesn't mind me doing this. I would be interested in doing, and hearing the results of, some sort of questionnaire. I indulged quite heavily in alcohol and benzodiazepines until 5 years ago, I tried multiple antidepressants during the next 3-4 years and I have peripheral neuropathy as a result. I don't have the erection problem every night, unlike the urination problem, so I'm thinking that there might me some other issue/cause from the day that exacerbates it at night. I'm not able to pinpoint this though. Alex.

JS here.
Anyone from Québec? Quelqu'un d'autre du Québec?
Santiago: is there a way to talk privately, other than by replying like everybody?
This afternoon, i'll write down the détails of my story.
Take care guys.
JS

JS, Yes definitely it will actually get us somewhere to talk one by one. Because this site is so confusing, you don’t even know who is who and random symptoms are thrown out all at once. My email is ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** posting of private e-mails is not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

By the way, this is Santiago who just posted above. I’m from New Mexico. If anyone is nearby let me know so we can meet for coffee and talk about this and attempt to find the cause of this.

JS here.
Here is basically my story:

- 39 years old
- Awakenings started slowly in 2010 (7 years ago) to culminate in 2012 with 5 awakenings every single night (severe form)
- I wake up every hour (average). It goes from cycles of 20 minutes to 2 hours
- Like many others: have to urinate and walk around for about 20 minutes and, important, have to get fully awake in order to get rid of the painful/incomfortable erection and be tension-free before to get back to bed
- Like Eugene, every night I note my awakenings.
Total sleep is about 6 hours (6 x 1 hour) every night.
If one day I sleep more, next night my sleep cycles with shorten, so I'll be back to my 6 hours average.

Hypothetical causes according to litterature that relate to me:
- Low back injury few years before appearence of symptoms and surgical removal of thoracic ependymoma (just like case described in Karsenty's article). Had full MRIs at 2 different hospitals: ALL NORMAL
- Also to mention: irritable bowel syndrome and biked several years before appearence of symptoms

Investigation:
- I saw 6 urologists and 2 specialists of sleep medicine
- All relevant blood tests were normal
- Saw several psychologists (tried EMDR) and was evaluated by a psychiatrist: no psychological causes found (i'm an anxious person but it has been constant since first years of high school)


Only medication that had been helpful for me:

1 mg clonazepam daily (Klonopin/Rivotril)
Had no awakening from SRPE AT ALL for about 6 months.
Like many others in this thread, it lost its efficacy gradually so i had to increase the dosage up to 4 mg daily to get the same benefits.
By today, i got totally tolerant to the drug: useless!!
I'd still recommend to anybody that have'nt tried it but be aware that you'll probably get tolerant to it like many folks here. But, at least, could give you a break for several months...


All the drugs I've tried that had NO EFFECT AT ALL (almost 30 different drugs!!): (I was counselled by a clinician pharmacist)

- Baclofen 60 mg
- Cialis 5 mg daily for 7 months (as per Dr.Burnett's articles about recurrent priapism and Dr.Van Driel's recommandation)
- BZNs: lorazepam, oxazepam, diazepam, bromazepam
- muscle relaxants: baclofen, tizanidine, cyclobenzaprine, methocarbamol
- antidepressants: amitryptiline (Elavil), citalopram (Celexa), venlafaxine (Effexor), duloxetine (Cymbalta), mirtazapine
- bisoprolol, propanolol, clonidine, zopiclone (Imovane), diphenydramine, hydroxyzine, gabapentin, pregabalin, carbamazepine, quetiapine (Seroquel), aripiprazole (Abilify)


Only attempt i was planning:
- finasteride (Propeccia)
However, possible devastating side effects on sexual life made me hesitate (not to mention post-finasteride syndrome). Also, testimonials of many folks here who had problems with their bladder or prostate following use of finasteride + mans who think its use may be the trigger to their SRPE make me hesitate even more.

My mindset by now: try to be as happy and fonctionnal as possible with this life-changing condition as opposed to be in a fighting mode (and be obssessed of finding a medication that would alleviate or eliminate my SRPE).

Finally, the several psychotherapys I went through over the last years allowed me to enlight an important aspect of my personnal history: the absence of my father during my childhood seems to have had a great impact on my masculine identity. Through some books on this matter (Corneau, Bly, Badinter) and what seems to be a consensus from the scientific literature from the '80s, I think these SRPE may somehow be related to an absent father/father complex (negative). Nothing scientific here, just thinking out loud...

If you relate to this kind of experience with your father (absent father/father complex/bad relationship with him, don't hesitate to share your history with me.

Ok, i think that's enough for now (!).
Hope it can help somehow :)
Eugene: waiting for your answer in order to fill your questionnaire.

Would be great if most folks here could do the same in order to get as much infos as possible.
Eugene's email: ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** posting of private e-mails is not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

Good luck to all of you!
Take care guys.

JS from Montreal

Anyone else experiencing throat issues along with this?

No throat issues here.
Anybody having other, kind of "non-normal", feelings on/in his penis/urethra during the day?

JS,
Did you try Clonozepam along with Baclofen.
They together work for me.
Vince