Testosterone And Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Life can be quite demanding, can’t it? Maybe you’re finding it hard to stay awake during work meetings, feel worryingly sleepy behind the wheel sometimes, or have begun taking long naps on the weekends. 

Welcome to excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). It’s thought to affect about 20% of the population and can occur for many reasons, including disturbed sleep, medications or conditions like sleep apnoea.

Now, if you’re regularly up throughout the night with a new baby, you know your sleep is disturbed. But it’s not always that obvious. Some people think they’re sleeping through the night – yet they’re not getting deep enough sleep to power them through the next day. What’s going on? 

In 2016-2017, Slovakian researchers set out to add to our knowledge about excessive daytime sleepiness. They took a large group of men who were habitual snorers and tried to uncover factors that could explain their EDS. Was it influenced by hormones, vitamin levels or something else? Specifically, they looked for associations between testosterone, vitamin D and sleep-related issues. 

We’ll take a look at their findings but first, let’s examine why testosterone and vitamin D matter. 

What Is Testosterone And What Does It Do? 

Testosterone plays a vital role in men’s health. This hormone is responsible for a man’s deep voice, hairiness, muscle and bone strength, sex drive and sperm production. 

Your testosterone levels will fluctuate throughout the day and are influenced by other aspects of your overall health and well-being. 

As you get older, testosterone levels naturally decline. That can reduce sex drive and performance, memory, concentration, sleep, mood, and muscle tone. 

What About Vitamin D? 

Vitamin D supports many important functions including your: 

• Bones
• Heart
• Gut health
• Immune system
• Muscles
• Mood
• Sleep
• Sexual performance
• Fertility.

Low vitamin D levels can cause a range of symptoms including fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness, aches or cramps, and mood changes. 

What The Study Found

By this point, you’re probably expecting to read that the Slovakian researchers found that – drum roll – low vitamin D and low testosterone levels were the cause of the excessive daytime sleepiness among the snoring men they studied. 

Well, here’s a surprise for you – they didn’t find that at all. They state, ‘Our results suggest that testosterone and vitamin D deficiency do not seem to play important role in EDS among subjects with sleep-disordered breathing.’ 

Medical research is like that sometimes. 

But they did notice something unexpected and intriguing. (Medical research is like that too.) 

There was one factor that was independently associated with both low testosterone levels and low vitamin D levels. That was the person’s weight. 

How Obesity Influences Vitamin D And Testosterone Levels

Remember, hormone levels are influenced by your overall health. If you’re overweight or obese, you’re more likely to have low testosterone. It’s a vicious cycle, unfortunately, because low testosterone levels also make it more likely that you’ll gain weight. 

A 2020 Australian study led by Clarke et al, considered low testosterone to be determined by a person’s weight rather than their sleep apnoea. That’s because treating sleep apnoea didn’t make any difference to testosterone levels whereas losing weight improved them. 

As for vitamin D, that’s known to be lower in obese people, probably because the amount isn’t sufficient for a larger body. Some even speculate that low vitamin D might be one of the causes of obesity. 

How Can Dr Lockie Help? 

As you can see, your weight has a significant influence on many aspects of your health. Its effects on testosterone and vitamin D levels may reduce your quality of life in many ways, affecting your mood, sex life, energy levels and fertility. 

But losing weight is not easy. You’ve probably already tried many times before and, even if you lost a few kilos, you’ve ultimately ended up right back where you started. 

We’re here to help you make lasting changes so you can live the life you want without feeling so weighed down.

We take a multidisciplinary approach to weight loss, supporting you with the combined expertise of a dietitian, SCOPE Certified , psychologist and surgeon. If you’d like to explore medical or surgical options for lasting weight loss, please book your free consultation today. 

 

Disclaimer

All information is general and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Dr Phil Lockie can consult with you to confirm if a particular treatment is right for you.

Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks.