As the debate rages on whether the tightness of a man’s underwear affects sperm count, there’s a whole other sperm killing threat out there: sleep apnea. You know, the condition that elevates your snoring from mild annoyance to worry that you’re being chainsawed to death every night in your sleep.
According to a study reported by ScienceAlert and published in Sleep Medicine, choking on your own airway for eight hours a night does a fine job of wrecking your cardiovascular system and ruining your partner’s sleep, but it also turns your sperm into lazy bums.
Your Sperm Might Be Suffering While You Sleep, According to a New Study
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen Hospital examined 72 reproductive-aged men with untreated obstructive sleep apnea and compared them to 22 healthy controls. Guys suffering from the night-time oxygen deprivation caused by sleep apnea produced lower overall semen volume and packed roughly 10 percent fewer sperm capable of actually swimming forward.
Their semen also registered elevated levels of inflammatory markers, proving that a suffocated throat leads straight to a bad environment for your sperm to hang out in.
The silver lining is that the dip in the quality wasn’t permanent. When 25 participants strapped on a CPAP machine, the clunky, awkward mask that stems the tide of sleep apnea by blasting pressurized air down your throat, sperm motility started bouncing back in as little as a month.
Sure, the mask itself is probably a bit of a hindrance to your late-night bedtime activities, which might explain why the study saw a massive drop-off rate as the months dragged on. But if you can tolerate sleeping while hooked up to tubing like you’re a coma patient who may never come out of it, that deeply unsexy mask might be one of a variety of factors that turn you into a sperm-producing powerhouse.
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