Association Between Sleep and Morning Testosterone Levels In Older Men
Abstract
STUDY OBJECTIVES: The circulating testosterone levels of healthy men decline with advancing age. This process is characterized by considerable inter-individual variability, the causes of which are of significant biological and clinical interest but remain poorly understood. Since sleep quantity and quality decrease with age, and experimentally-induced sleep loss in young adults results in hormonal changes similar to those that occur spontaneously in the course of aging, this study examined whether some of the variability in circulating testosterone levels of older men can be related to objective differences in their sleep. DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: General community and university clinical research center. PARTICIPANTS: Twelve healthy men ages 64 to 74 years. INTERVENTIONS: Three morning blood samples were pooled for the measurement of total and free testosterone. In addition to overnight laboratory polysomnography, wrist activity monitoring for 6-9 days was used to determine the amount of nighttime sleep of the participants in everyday life settings. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The main outcome measures were total sleep time and morning testosterone levels. Sleep time in the laboratory was correlated with the usual amount of nighttime sleep at home (Pearson's r = 0.842; P = 0.001). Bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the amount of nighttime sleep measured by polysomnography was an independent predictor of the morning total (Beta 0.792, P = 0.017) and free (Beta 0.741, P = 0.029) testosterone levels of the subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Objectively measured differences in the amount of nighttime sleep are associated with a significant part of the variability in the morning testosterone levels of healthy older men.
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Total sleep time is related to morning testosterone.
“Given the relationship between total sleep time and morning testosterone [72]”
From Impact of Five Nights of Sleep Restriction on Glucose Metabolism, Leptin and Testosterone in Young Adult Men (2012) · cites this paper as [72]
In older men, morning testosterone levels are partly predicted by total sleep time.
“In older men, morning testosterone levels are partly predicted by total sleep time.3”
From Effect of 1 Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men (2011) · cites this paper as [3]
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“Given the relationship between total sleep time and morning testosterone [72], it is unsurprising that the only published data to date on the relationship between sleep restriction and testosterone found that levels decreased significantly after 8 nights of 5 hours time in bed [45].”
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- Authors
- Penev, P. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Penev, Plamen D.
- Venue
- Sleep
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-04
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 427-432
- ISSN
- 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9109
- OpenAlex
- W2141584754
- Cited by
- 86
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 4.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- SLEEP (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- American Federation for Aging Research
- University of Chicago
- National Institutes of Health (MO1-RR00055)
- National Center for Research Resources (M01-RR 00055, M01RR000055)
- NIH Clinical Center
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Keywords
- sleep duration, testosterone, free testosterone, aging, older men, nocturnal sleep, sleep quality, interindividual variability, total sleep time
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aging, Circadian Rhythm, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reference Values, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Sleep, REM, Statistics as Topic, Testosterone, Polysomnography
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