Last updated on August 28, 2020
Question:
I am 11 years old and I have erections a lot. Is that bad for me?
Answer:
Erections are a normal part of life for a man and every man goes through a phase when his penis becomes erect frequently. They are called spontaneous erections because they come and go as they please and not for any particular reason. Spontaneous erections are a reflection of your brain trying to figure out how to control this new ability that it has, which is to make your penis bigger and erect. So like a child wondering what this switch is for, it pulls the lever repeatedly to see what happens. Your reaction gives your brain the feedback it needs to know, “Well, perhaps this isn’t such a great time to do that.”
Eventually, things settle down, though it is going to take a number of years. Your brain will slowly start to focus on the fact that erections are only needed for sex and the number of erections will decrease. Even so, you will always have erections every day because your body is designed to have erections while you sleep. The normal male has about five erections each night. They correspond to the times you dream during your sleep. The last one is just before you wake up in the morning, so typically you will wake up with an erection. You’ll have these for the rest of your life.