Author Archives: Kevin Lee

Why do we kiss?

The action of two person’s lips touching: Kissing, has been widely accepted as a means of sharing affection. But, why do we touch lips amongst all other body parts?

Image of Max-factor-lips

First of all, to introduce some trivia, an average human being spends 20, 160 minutes of his or her life kissing. Also, the longest kiss recorded was 58 hours 35 minutes and 58 seconds.

A passionate kiss burns about 2-3 calories per minute, and pumps epinephrine and norepinephrine into the blood stream, making your heart pump faster. Kissing more often has also shown positive correlations with cholesterol reductions and perceived stress.

So, why does our brain equate this action of touching lips with someone else as positive? Evolutionists claim that the evolution of our current kiss is derived from “Kiss-Feeding”.

The action of exchanging pre-chewed food from one mouth to another. This action, most often shown in birds feeding their young, is a sign of love and sacrifice.

House Sparrow feeding the young

It wasn’t long ago that humans were feeding their young with pre-chewed food. Until the commercialization of baby foods, pre-chewing and mouth feeding infants were a popular activity amongst parents.

The brain, with years of evolutions, have learned to associate the touching of mouths with themes such as love and care. Eventually, the touching of the mouths has become the norm for expressing your love and affection for one another.

Science behind the Morning Wood

It happens to grown men, little boys, and even male still in utero: the ability to pitch a tent in the morning in your pyjamas without any camping skills.

All jokes aside, nocturnal penile tumescence, otherwise known as morning wood, is a phenomenon that males experience on a daily basis without a full understanding of how and why it happens.

An experience we men are too familiar with

It is revealed by studies that morning wood occurs numerously during sleep, and is in direct correlation with the sleep cycle that alternates between levels of sleep.

One of the most important stages of sleep is the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage. An average male undergoes REM stage around 4-8 times over regular sleep, and at this stage of sleep certain neurotransmitters decrease.

Of the many neurotransmitters that decrease during REM sleep, Norepinephrine is one of them.

Norepinephrine structure

Norepinephrine acts as a vasoconstrictor that regulates erections. Metaphorically, it is used as a stop sign chemical that inhibits blood flow into penis muscles and thus inhibiting the erection.

In REM sleep, it is proved that norepinephrine levels drastically drop and allow vasodilation, increasing the blood flow into the penile muscles.

So why is morning wood important?

To answer the question, increased blood flow into the penis muscles, like any other tissue in the body, increases oxygenation. This increased blood flow and oxygenation is critical in repairing and maintaining functionality.

Another question one might bring up is why we always wake up to this phenomena. The answer is because we most usually wake up just out of REM sleep and thus observe the remnants of this sleep stage.

It is profound how such phenomena we face everyday without much thought can be the result of chemical reactions in the male body. Perhaps next time you wake up with morning wood you’ll be assured that you’re fully repaired and fully functional.