So I've realized that when I have nocturnal emissions, I don't have POIS. In fact, I feel great the next day. I'm wondering if this means that my POIS is just psychological. Thoughts?
I occasionally also have nocturnal emissions with no POIS symptoms at all (not just reduced symptoms), and I also feel great the next day. I have the impression that having no POIS symptoms after NE is more likely to happen if I only wake up after the ejaculation has happened. Sometimes I wake up shortly before the ejaculation, but cannot prevent it anymore. In those cases, I tend to get POIS symptoms the next day, but much reduced. The latter phenomenon might have to do with anxiety / being conscious. Like Quantum suggested.
also important but less obvious, being conscious of an upcoming ejaculation will trigger in me some anxiety or fear, even if I am not aware of this anxiety
Most of the discussion on this thread concerning reasons for reduced symptoms centered around the body being in a state of relaxation during NE, due to already having had some sleep before ejaculation - and getting more sleep afterwards. I would like to throw another aspect into the discussion. There might be differences in the composition of the ejaculate between NE and 'normal' ejaculations. I came across this article
Hovav, Yedidya, Mary Dan-Goor, Haim Yaffe, and Miriam Almagor. 1999. ?Nocturnal Sperm Emission in Men with Psychogenic Anejaculation.? Fertility and Sterility 72 (2): 364?65. doi:10.1016/S0015-0282(99)00239-3.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028299002393which compares the characteristics of the ejaculate obtained from nocturnal emissions with those obtained from electro-ejaculation. I quote:
"Nocturnal sperm emission is an autonomous reflex mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. Because this reflex may not be fully stimulated, the concentration and motility of the ejaculated sperm might be affected."
And further:
"In four patients, the concentration and motility of sperm obtained from freeze-thawed nocturnal emission were decreased compared with sperm from electroejaculation. Fertilization rates after ICSI using the nocturnal emission sperm were relatively low (45%)."
However, there is a newer article which finds the opposite result: higher sperm quality and motility in NE:
Meng, Xianghu, Longchang Fan, Jihong Liu, Tao Wang, Jun Yang, Junkai Wang, Shaogang Wang, and Zhangqun Ye. 2013. ?Fresh Semen Quality in Ejaculates Produced by Nocturnal Emission in Men with Idiopathic Anejaculation.? Fertility and Sterility 100 (5): 1248?52. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2013.07.1979.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028213027659I quote:
"Sperm motility and normal morphology were higher in patients who collected sperm by NE than in those who collected sperm by PVS and EEJ."
The authors attribute the difference to the previous study to:
"This discrepancy in results may be attributed to two reasons. One is that the semen samples collected by NE used the freeze-thaw technique, which can influence the quality of fresh semen (20, 21). The other may be related to the limited sample size (four men) of the previous study."
The newer study is based on a sample of 91 men. Since there are so far few studies on NE, the evidence is far from conclusive. But it might well be that there are differences in the composition of the ejaculate obtained from NE and 'normal' ejaculations - and that this plays a role for the amount of POIS symptoms experienced (or the absence of these symptoms).
