Sperm quality can decrease due to sleeping late at night

The average man will produce at least 525 billion sperm cells in his lifetime and shed at least one billion of them every month. A healthy adult male can release between 40 million and 1.2 billion sperm cells in one ejaculation. However, sperm quality can decrease, because it will depend on various external factors such as your daily habits.

Well, those of you who are used to staying up late or sleeping late must start to be vigilant. The reason is, lack of sleep is one of the factors that can actually damage sperm. Plus, poor sperm quality can have an impact on your fertility. From 1 in 10 couples who are infertile, it is estimated that as much as 30% of the cause is due to poor sperm quality.

Why is lack of sleep can make sperm quality decrease?

Reporting from two different studies, men who are sleep deprived have sperm counts and fewer "batches" of perfectly formed sperm when compared to groups of men who get enough sleep - approximately 7-8 hours per night. Sperm belonging to men who like to stay up late were also found to be shorter than men who got enough sleep for 8 hours each day.

The two studies, one from Harbin Medical University in China in early 2017 and the other from the University of Southern Denmark in 2013, found only an association with deteriorating sperm quality and not a direct cause-and-effect relationship. However, there are several plausible theories to explain this connection. Here's the explanation.

Lack of sleep affects testosterone production

Testosterone is required for reproduction, and most of the daily release of testosterone occurs during sleep. Researchers suspect that sleep disturbances change the rhythm of testosterone at night, without affecting overall testosterone levels. But other lifestyle factors that were not taken into account in this study could also explain the reasons behind the lack of sleep that decreased sperm quality.

For example, most men generally choose to stay up late to complete work deadlines. The stress of this job can also explain why the quality of his sleep is deteriorating, so that the quality of his sperm deteriorates. Stress has long been known to disrupt hormones that affect fertility.

On the other hand, sleep-deprived men may choose to spend their time waiting to go back to sleep smoking or drinking alcohol. Some people will smoke or drink alcohol and think it will help them fall asleep faster. In fact, alcohol abuse negatively affects sperm quality and production, while smoking impairs sperm motility. And that's not all.

Apart from slowing down the secretion of sperm and decreasing sperm quality, other studies have shown that smoking can damage sperm DNA and increase the risk of impotence.

Lack of sleep triggers an increase in anti-sperm antibody (ASA)

A research team from Harbin Medical University suspects that sleeping late at night and lack of sleep can trigger an increase in anti-sperm antibodies (ASA), which can damage the quality of healthy sperm.

Anti-sperm antibodies are proteins produced by the body's immune system. This is not the absolute cause of male infertility, but the effect is clear; the greater the response of your body's immune system to releasing these antibodies, the less likely it is that pregnancy will occur. In other words, your body tracks this part of the reproductive function as an enemy and sends "natural" killer cells that contain anti-sperm antibodies to fight back.

Anti-sperm antibodies work by blocking sperm movement, making it harder for sperm to fertilize, and inhibiting embryo implantation. Therefore, sperm from a man who has a high sperm antibody count will find it difficult to reach the egg, and / or fertilize the egg, possibly causing infertility. Anti-sperm antibodies can also damage surviving sperm, and this can lead to miscarriage.

Interestingly, this study from China also found that sleeping for more than nine hours also triggers the overproduction of anti-sperm antibodies, just as does six hours of sleep or even less at night. This then can make sperm quality decrease.