The Relationship Between Sleep and Your Prostate
How prostate issues can affect your sleep
The most common prostate issues are:
Prostatitis (inflammation)
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
Prostate cancer
These problems induce a wide range of symptoms, including frequent urination, nocturia or nocturnal polyuria (urinating at night), blood in urine or semen, painful ejaculation, pain or burning during urination, dribbling of urine, decreased urine flow, among others.
The effects of prostate conditions aren’t limited to the gland itself. Symptoms can affect other aspects of a patient’s life, including sleep.
Insomnia is a difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. BPH can cause difficulty sleeping due to the need to urinate frequently at night. This can lead to insomnia. Evidence confirms insomnia is common in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms associated with BPH. What’s more, the frequency of nocturia is strongly associated with the severity of insomnia.
How Sleep Affects Prostate Health
In turn, the lack of sleep can make BPH symptoms worse, and may even raise the risk of developing prostate cancer. The relationship between sleep disorders and prostate cancer is not as clear. However, there is some evidence that men with sleep disorders may be at increased risk for prostate cancer.
A study has found that a lack of sleep can double the risk of prostate cancer. Researchers spent five years comparing the health of older men with their sleeping patterns. They studied more than 2,000 men aged between 67 and 96. They were asked whether they took sleeping pills, had trouble falling asleep, found it difficult to get back to sleep after waking in the night, or woke early and stayed awake. Among the participants, between 8.7 per cent and 5.7 per cent reported severe and very severe sleep problems. None had prostate cancer at the start of the study. Five years later, 6.4 per cent of the men were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Compared with those who had no problems sleeping, those with insomnia were significantly more likely to develop the disease.
The risk rose proportionately with the severity of sleep problems, increasing from 1.6 to 2.1 times the usual level.
The researchers took steps to rule out the possibility that sleep problems were caused by undiagnosed prostate cancer or enlarged prostate glands, which can cause an urge to urinate during the night.
Why poor sleep can affect men's chances of developing the disease is unexplained.
Getting enough sleep is important for overall health. Sleep helps the body repair and heal itself. It is also important for prostate health. Treating BPH can improve the quality of sleep. Treatments for BPH such as medications and surgery can help to relieve the symptoms of BPH, such as frequent urination and bladder pain. These treatments can also help to improve sleep quality by reducing the number of trips to the bathroom at night. In addition, getting enough sleep is important for reducing the risk of prostate cancer.
After knowing the relationship between sleep and prostate health, how BPH can cause difficulty sleeping, the relationship between sleep problems and an increased risk of prostate cancer, and finally,how treating BPH can improve the quality of sleep, and why it is important to get enough sleep, thus if you are having difficulty sleeping, talk to your doctor about treatment options for BPH. Getting enough sleep is important for overall health and prostate health.
Sources:
Bortecen, Kerem. (2022, June 17). The Relationship Between Sleep and Your Prostate. Accessed from https://sohomenshealth.com
Accessed from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2320520/Insomnia-double-risk-prostate-cancer-researchers-study-2-000-men.html