Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. This means fewer reps, less weight lifted, and ultimately less muscle growth over time. Lack of sleep doesn’t just affect recovery—it destroys your performance in the gym. This is also when key anabolic hormones are released, helping your muscles grow bigger and stronger. If you have a medical concern, it is critical to seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions. Sesame content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. While it tends to subside over time, these lifestyle changes and OTC treatments may help you find relief. Prioritizing quality sleep is therefore vital for maintaining optimal hormonal balance and overall well-being. Testosterone, a key hormone in the male body, plays a crucial role in regulating various physiological processes. In this article, we will discuss the relationship between sleep and testosterone. Our reviewers go through an internal sleep health training course to insure that they are able to provide the most helpful and accurate information they can. Recognising the signs of low testosterone is therefore important for timely intervention. It may be that sleep is impacting sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) — a protein that binds to sex hormones and transports them around the body — and this is what’s lowering testosterone. That’s because testosterone production is dependent on sleep. Testosterone can impact your sleep, but the link goes both ways — the amount of sleep you get can impact your testosterone levels. Abusing testosterone, or taking it when you don’t need to medically for powerlifting or bodybuilding, for example, can also impact sleep. If low testosterone levels impact your sleep, you’d think testosterone supplements or injections could help, right? High testosterone levels may also impact your sleep, but the research is sparse. This leads to getting less sleep overall, but it also changes your sleep architecture as it disrupts your natural sleep cycles. It’s not just older men who need to worry about sleep, though. Most studies are small or focus on sleep apnea or older men, for example. As with everything testosterone, more research needs to be done to know for sure. And this was the case even when factors like age, race, and sleep apnea severity were taken into account. With testosterone replacement therapy, sleep quality usually improves.7 To confirm this, a doctor will need to measure your testosterone levels with a blood test and investigate the cause. Both lack of sleep and disrupted sleep can negatively impact testosterone levels. Sleep influences the daily rhythm of testosterone production, which may be thrown off by sleep disruptions. Some evidence suggests that insufficient sleep can lower testosterone levels, but not all studies have found the same results. Research suggests that insufficient sleep and sleep disorders like sleep apnea may affect testosterone levels.
