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Sleep, Sex Steroid Hormones, Sexual Activities, and Aging in Asian Men

VICTOR H.-H. GOH^*,

From the ^* Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National University of Singapore, National University Hospital, Singapore.
Present address: General Clinical Research Center, LA BioMed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; and Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 1124 W Carson Street, Torrance, CA 90502.

Correspondence to: Dr Victor Goh, General Clinical Research Center, LA BioMed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 1124 W Carson Street, Torrance, CA 90502 (e-mail: vgoh{at}labiomed.org).

Received for publication February 27, 2009; accepted for publication August 14, 2009.

	Abstract

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This was a cross-sectional study to examine the different associations of age and sleep duration with sex steroid hormones and sexual activities in 531 Asian Chinese men aged between 29 and 72 years old. Sleep duration and sexual activities were evaluated through a self-administered questionnaire, and total testosterone (T), sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG), estradiol (E2), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) were measured by established immunoassay methods in a single blood sample collected between 8:00 and 11:00 AM. Bioavailable T (BioT) was calculated using the Vermeulen formula. Age was a major determinant of sleep, sex steroid hormones, and sexual activities in men. BioT, DHEAS, coital frequency, masturbation, and sleep duration declined with age. On the other hand, SHBG and E2 increased with age. Sleep duration, independently of age, aerobic exercise, and body fat, was positively associated with T and BioT, but not with DHEAS, E2, or any of the sexual activities studied. Men who masturbated had higher levels of both T and BioT. DHEAS was significantly associated with coital frequency and desire for sex. The present study showed that besides age, sleep duration was associated with androgen concentrations in men, and thus the evaluation of sleep hygiene may be beneficial in the management of men with low androgen concentrations. DHEAS may be independently associated with some sexual functions in men.

     Key words: Physical exercise, testosterone, bioavailable T, DHEAS

Widespread participation in Internet activities and globalized cross–time zone trading may have compromised normal circadian sleep in many people. Chronic sleep restriction has become one of the most common and yet least studied health issues. It is endemic in modern society. Americans are sleeping less than the recommended 8 hours per night (Bliwise et al, 1992; Harrison and Horne, 1995; National Sleep Foundation, 2002). We have reported that sleep duration decreased with age (Goh et al, 2007) and disrupted sleep can affect androgen concentrations (Penev, 2007), but the reported association between sleep and androgen concentrations has been equivocal. The reasons, in part, may be because studies involve small numbers of subjects, and are carried out in laboratory or operational settings as in intensive military training (Remes et al, 1985; Opstad, 1992; Penev, 2007). The impact of sleep on androgen concentrations under these settings may not necessarily represent that of men living in the community. The present study sought to evaluate the association of age and sleep duration with sex steroid hormone concentrations and sexual activities in a group of men living in the community.

	Materials and Methods

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Subjects

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the National University Hospital, and each volunteer gave his written informed consent. The method was previously reported in an early analysis (Goh et al, 2007). Five hundred and thirty-one Singaporean Chinese men, aged between 29 and 72 years, were included in the analyses. Subjects were recruited from the general public through an open invitation, first through an announcement during the World Congress in Sexology held in Singapore. The announcement was carried in the major newspapers in Singapore. Continual recruitment was assisted through word of mouth from volunteer to volunteer. The targeted number of men between the ages of 30 and 70 years was 400. The good response from the public was, in part, due to the prevailing awareness of aging issues in Singapore at that time. As the primary objective was to evaluate the determinants of the natural aging process, only subjects with no known existing or history of major medical illnesses such as cancer, hypertension, thyroid dysfunction, diabetes, osteoporotic fracture, and cardiovascular events, as well as major sleep disorders, including sleep apnea requiring chronic treatment, were included in the study. None of the subjects had a history of erectile dysfunction requiring treatment. On physical examination, none had genital abnormalities. Subjects were not paid for participation. They represented the diverse spectrum of the Chinese in Singapore, ranging from those with low to high levels of education, working and nonworking men (retirees), and those in various types of vocations (Goh et al, 2007). Their profiles were typical in Singapore, which is a highly urbanized city-state with no rural population. Each subject answered a self-administered and investigator-guided questionnaire. Questions asked covered their medical, dietary, social, sex, and family histories and other relevant histories regarding consumption of hormones, supplements and medication, types of beverages, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

Methodologies

The self-administered, investigator-guided questionnaire (see Appendix for full text) has not been validated, but contained questions that could be categorized. In this questionnaire, subjects were asked to score their average sleep duration per night as well as some common sexual activities over the preceding 6 months.

     Hormonal Assays for Total Testosterone, Sex Hormone–Binding Globulin, and Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate— Hormone concentrations were measured in serum from a single blood sample collected after an 12-hour overnight fast between 8:00 and 11:00 AM. Serum testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) concentrations were measured using reagents and methods recommended by the World Health Organization Matched Reagent Program (Sufi et al, 1992), with modification to the scintillation proximity methods established in house (Goh et al, 1990). The lower limit of quantitation for E2 was 10 pg/mL, and the interassay coefficient of variation ranged from 5% to 10% (Goh et al, 1978). T, sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) were measured using methods reported earlier (Chia et al, 1997). The interassay coefficients of variation were less than 10% over the effective concentration ranges for T and DHEAS and less than 15% for SHBG (Chia et al, 1997).

     Method of Calculation of Bioavailable Testosterone— Bioavailable testosterone (BioT) was calculated using the computer formula of Vermeulen, which is available on the ISSAM Web site (www.issam.ch/freetesto.htm). Total testosterone was computed as ng/dL and SHBG as nmol/L. Albumin level was assumed to be 4.4 g/dL. Hence, BioT was expressed as ng/dL (Vermeulen et al, 1999).

Statistical Analysis

Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows version 16.0. Basic descriptive statistics, as well as comparison of means using 1-way analysis of variance and the univariate analyses of the general linear model coupled with the least significant difference as the post hoc test for multiple means, were used on continuous measurements and where appropriate. For the noncontinuous measurements, such as number of men who masturbated, sleep duration, and desire for sex, ² analyses were used.

Every man had a whole-body fat scan using the DEXA (Goh et al, 2007); therefore, the total body fat based on the Siri formula from the Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) machine was used as the index for total body fat. This is preferred over the conventional use of body mass index (BMI) as an index of total body fat.

Most of the continuous measurements, such as sex steroid hormones, coital frequency, and body fat, were not normally distributed. Hence, they were log₁₀-transformed before being subjected to the appropriate statistical analyses.

Comparisons of means of various parameters were based on 4 age groups, 40, 41–50, 51–60, and >60 years, as well as on the 4 sleep duration groups, <4, 4–6, 6–8, and >8 hours; 2 groups of those who did and did not masturbate; and 3 groups of desire for sex: want more, happy, and want less sex.

Because age was a major determinant, the general linear model univariate procedure provided regression analysis and analysis of variance for 1 dependent variable by 1 or more factors and/or variables with age as the covariate. In other analyses, age, body fat, and aerobic exercise scores (AeroS; Goh et al, 2007) were evaluated as covariates, with the corresponding values for age and body fat and AeroS set at the respective values shown in each table. Because sleep duration was not a continuous measurement, the regression was weighted for sleep duration. The was set at .05.

Age, sleep duration, and AeroS had significant interactions. In regression analysis for total T, with sleep duration, age, body fat, and AeroS as covariates, the collinearity statistics and diagnostics using tolerance, variance inflation factor, eigenvalue, and condition index showed that there was no collinearity problem for sleep duration with the other three covariates, and the correlation noted for sleep duration with T and BioT could be explained mainly by sleep duration.

	Results

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Except for T and desire for sex, all other sex steroid hormone concentrations and sexual activities, as well as sleep duration, changed significantly with age (Table 1). Even when the analyses of T with age groups were done with body fat and exercise scores as covariates, and weighted for sleep duration, there were no significant differences in T among all 4 age groups. Among the sex steroid concentrations, the decline of serum DHEAS with age was most dramatic, declining by 11.2%, 28.8%, and 42.4%, respectively, in men 41–50, 51–60, and >60 years as compared with the mean concentrations in men less than 40 years old (Table 1). Bioavailable testosterone declined by 16.5% to 17.9% in men above 50 years when compared with men less than 40 years old (Table 1). On the other hand, SHBG in men older than 50 years increased by 16.0% to 26.2% when compared with younger men (<40 years; Table 1). Serum E2 concentrations were significantly higher in men above 50 years old when compared with men 40 years (Table 1). It is noted that the E2 assay used has a sensitivity of down to 10 pg/mL, which might probably be higher than the lower range of normal men. However, with a precision of up to 10%, the absolute values of the concentrations may not be accurate; however, the observed differences between groups may still be valid.

Eighty-eight percent of men were married and had a stable relationship, and 0.6% were living with a partner of the opposite sex; 2.3% were divorced or separated, 1.1% were widowed, and 7.9% were single. Coital frequency and the number of times that men engaged in self-masturbation were reduced by 49.3% and 39.3%, respectively, in men above 60 years old when compared with men less than 40 years old (Table 1). Similarly, fewer men engaged in self-masturbation in the older compared with the younger age groups (Table 1). There were significantly more men older than 51 years who slept less as compared with younger men (40 years old). More than 22% of men older than 50 years routinely slept less than 6 hours nightly, as compared with only 8.3% of men younger than 40 years (Table 1).

Because age was associated with body fat (DEXA), AeroS, BioT, and T was associated with body fat (DEXA) and AeroS, the associations of sleep duration with T and BioT were analyzed with age, total body fat (DEXA), and AeroS as covariates. These regression analyses showed that sleep duration, independent of these covariates, was significantly and positively associated with androgen levels (Figure). Men who slept between 4 and 6 hours and less than 4 hours had both T and BioT levels that were, respectively >14% and >35% lower as compared with men who routinely slept more than 8 hours (Figure).

View larger version (26K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure. The boxes represent the mean and bar +SD of testosterone (T; checkered boxes) and bioavailable testosterone (BioT; dotted boxes) in men in the different sleep duration groups. Note: The covariates appearing in the model were evaluated at the following values: age = 50.3 years, percentage body fat = 17.0, and aerobic exercise score = 3.11. a, T levels were significantly lower than groups 2, 3, and 4 (P = .042, .007, and .002); b, T levels were significantly lower than group 4 (P = .026); c, BioT levels were significantly lower than groups 3 and 4 (P = .015 and .005); d, BioT levels were significantly lower than groups 3 and 4 (P = .039 and .009).

Sexual activities were variably associated with different androgens. Men who engaged in self-masturbation had significantly higher concentrations of both T and BioT, but not DHEAS, as compared with those who did not masturbate (Table 2). Those who did masturbate had significantly lower coital frequency than those who did not masturbate (Table 2). On the other hand, DHEAS concentrations were higher in men who were either happy with their coital frequency or who wanted more as compared with those who wanted less sex (Table 3). In addition, DHEAS concentrations were positively associated with coital frequency (β = 0.142, P = .005).

	Discussion

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The present study suggests that age is a major determinant of many physiological parameters, including sleep, sex steroid hormones, and sexual activities. As with earlier studies, there were significant declines of DHEAS and BioT, but not T, in men as they age (Morley et al, 1997; Ferrini and Barrett-Connor, 1998; Stellato et al, 2000; Harman et al, 2001; Feldman et al, 2002; Mohr et al, 2005; Orwoll et al, 2006; Goh et al, 2007). Both SHBG and E2 were significantly higher in older men as compared with younger men. Significantly more men above 50 years old slept less than 6 hours nightly as compared with younger men (<40 years old). Men above 60 years had significantly lower coital frequency; fewer older men wanted more sex than they were already having; and fewer older men engaged in masturbation, and, if they did masturbate, they did so less frequently than younger men.

The present study clearly showed a positive association between habitual sleep duration and androgen concentrations that is independent of age, total body fat, and exercise intensity. Men with acute sleep restriction (those who slept <4 hours daily) and those with moderate sleep restriction (those who slept between 4 and 6 hours daily) had significantly lower androgen concentrations (T and BioT), by >35% and >14%, respectively, when compared with corresponding concentrations in men who slept more than 8 hours. This is one of the first studies to show a positive association between sleep duration and androgen concentrations in men living in community rather than in men studied under experimental laboratory or military exercise settings, as has been reported in earlier studies (Remes et al, 1985; Opstad, 1992; Penev, 2007). It must be noted that there were only 14 men who reported that they routinely sleep for less than 4 hours. It is unlikely that there would be many more individuals who would routinely sleep less than 4 hours, because this sleep duration represents chronic severe sleep restriction. However, the fact that T and BioT were significantly lower in men who slept for between 4 and 6 hours than in those who slept for >6 hours gives credence to the suggestion that men who sleep less than 6 hours had lower T and BioT than those who sleep more than 6 hours, even if we were to discount results of those who slept <4 hours. In addition, sex steroids were measured in a single morning sample from each subject. This represented a weakness of the present study. More accurate estimates of T concentrations would have been achieved if repeat sampling had been employed. Therefore, results of the present study must be viewed with these limitations in mind.

Many today have disrupted circadian sleep patterns, with some sleeping in the day and working in the night, whereas others have chronic sleep restriction, that is, shortened sleep duration each day. Chronic sleep restriction can affect somatic and emotional well-being (Belenky et al, 2003), but relatively little is known of its long-term effect on health. Data in the present study indicate that sleep restriction is associated with reduced androgen concentrations and consequently may affect androgen-dependent functions.

A clear association between sleep and androgen concentrations may have significant implications in the management of aging in men and men with late-onset hypogonadism. Therefore, in their management, apart from looking at other confounding factors including obesity, diabetes, and aging (Semple et al, 1988; Giagulli et al, 1994; Gooran, 1996; Wändell and Brorsson, 2000), the sleep history of men must be explored as a possible contributing factor for their low androgen concentrations. In men with low concentrations of androgens concurrent with poor sleep habits, the promotion of better sleep hygiene may represent a nondrug intervention for improving their androgen concentrations. However, several pertinent questions concerning the relationship between sleep and androgen concentrations remain to be answered in future research studies. Clarification is needed of whether restoring adequate sleep in men with poor sleep could increase their androgen concentrations. And if it does, how long after restoration of sleep will androgen concentrations be improved? Is the quality of sleep a significant factor in the relationship between sleep and androgen concentrations?

The full extent of the effects of lowered concentrations of androgens cannot be inferred from the current data set; however, it was shown that men with lower concentrations of T and BioT were less likely to engage in self-masturbation. On the other hand, neither T nor BioT were associated with coital frequency or with desire for more frequent coitus. Similar observations were noted in earlier studies, in which weight loss–associated increases in androgen concentrations did not result in changes in sexual function scores, and neither were coital frequency and libido associated with T concentrations in aging men (Sadowsky et al, 1993; Kaukua et al, 2003). In a meta-analysis it was suggested that T treatment of men with low T had only moderately improved the number of nocturnal erections, sexual thoughts and motivation, number of successful acts of intercourse, scores of erectile function, and overall sexual satisfaction (Isidori et al, 2005). These observations suggest that androgens may have limited sexual motivational effect in men. As noted in the present study, sexual functions were associated with age and other sex steroids; hence, some of the differences noted in the various studies might have arisen, in part, when age and other factors were not taken into consideration in the analyses.

The positive association between DHEAS and coital frequency in men was independent of age, and higher concentrations of DHEAS were associated with a desire for more frequent sex than the men were already having. Similar observations were noted by other investigators. Decreased DHEAS was noted in men with orgasmic dysfunction International Index of Erectile Function-II (IIEF II), dysfunction of sexual desire (IIEF III), and decreased sexual function scores (Ponholzer et al, 2002; Kuba et al, 2006). Men treated with DHEAS had improved sexual functions (Adimoelja and Adaikan, unpublished data). Therefore, it appears that DHEAS may have a more significant role in some sexual functions than has been currently suggested. DHEAS is present in similar quantities in men and women and declines dramatically with age. As with men, low concentration of DHEAS has been associated with low libido and sexual dysfunction in women (News-Medical.Net, 2004; Gracia et al, 2007). Hence, it is possible that DHEAS might be a common factor modulating sexual functions in both men and women.

Significantly, more men older than 60 years had sleep duration of less than 6 hours nightly when compared with younger men (40 years). This observation supports the common notion that men tend to sleep for shorter duration as they age. An adequate nightly sleep is a key component of humans' recuperation process following a day's work. This recuperation process is the engine for the regeneration of alertness required for optimal cognitive and physical functional capacities (Penev, 2007). Generally, adequate sleep duration enhances alertness and performance during subsequent wakefulness (Remes et al, 1985; Opstad, 1992). In the present study, the observation that total T and BioT were highest in men who slept between 6 and 8 hours or more gives indirect support to the suggestion by Belensky that the optimal sleep duration is about 8 hours (Belenky et al, 2003).

Several sexual activities declined with age. Coital frequency in Singaporean men decreased from an average of 4.46 times per month in men 40 years old to 2.26 times in men over 60 years old. The observed coital frequencies as compared with many other countries were low and concurred with the Durex Global Sex Survey (2005), which ranked Singapore second lowest besides Japan among more than 100 countries surveyed. In contrast to Greece, which had an annual frequency of sex of 138, frequencies for Singapore and Japan were 73 and 45, respectively. Although the coital frequencies of Singaporean men, by any account, were low, they should not be interpreted as an indication of sexual dysfunction. Coital frequency and sex must be viewed within the cultural context of the population. In some cultures, sex may be higher in the priority list than in other cultures. Singapore is a highly urbanized and competitive society. Men tend to spend most of their energy on career and family. This suggestion is supported by our earlier study (Goh et al, 2004), which noted that most men and women reported that they were happy with their coital frequency. Interestingly, men with higher coital frequency did not desire more sex and were less likely to engage in masturbation. Those with lower coital frequency might have unmet sexual desire, and in some, this desire was met by engaging in masturbation.

In summary, the present study shows that age remains a major determinant for many physiological parameters, including sleep, sex steroids, and sexual activities. As men aged, significant declines in sleep duration, BioT and DHEAS concentrations, coital frequency, engagement in masturbation, and frequency of masturbation were noted. Independent of age, body fat, and exercise intensity, sleep duration was positively associated with both T and BioT concentrations. The average coital frequency in Singaporean men was low. Testosterone and BioT were positively associated with masturbation but not with coital frequency. On the other hand, DHEAS was associated with coital frequency in men. In addition, DHEAS was associated with men's desire for more sex, possibly signifying a role of DHEAS in sexual functions. The significant association of sleep with androgen concentrations suggests that sleep might be a contributing factor in the etiology of men with low concentrations of androgen. Therefore, in the management of men with low androgen concentrations, an evaluation of their sleep hygiene might add to the understanding of the etiology of their hypogonadal state.

	Acknowledgments

 
We will like to thank Ms Helen Mok, Mrs Baharudin Said, Ms Eng Sok Kheng, and Ms Poon Peng Cheng for their expert technical input into this study.

	Footnotes

 
Supported in part by funds from the Academic Research Fund of the National University of Singapore. V.H.-H.G.'s position in the General Clinical Research Centre at Harbor UCLA Medical Center was supported by NIH grant M01-RR0425.

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