Sleep sex

Sleep sex
Classification and external resources
Specialty Sleep medicine

Sleep sex, or sexsomnia, is a condition in which a person will engage in sexual activities while asleep. This condition falls within the broad class of sleep disorders known as parasomnias.[1] In extreme cases, sexsomnia has been alleged, and accepted, as at least a part of the cause of sexual assault, including rape.[2][3][4][5]

The proposed medical diagnosis is NREM arousal parasomnia – sexual behaviour in sleep. Sexsomnia is considered a type of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) parasomnia. Sexsomniacs do not remember the acts that they perform while they are asleep.

Sexsomnia can co-occur alongside other sleep disorders such as sleepwalking, sleep apnea, night terrors and bedwetting and can be triggered by stress, previous sleep deprivation and excessive consumption of alcohol or other drugs;[2] it is one of the possible adverse effects of zolpidem[6]. Sleep related epilepsy may be associated with sexual arousal, pelvic thrusting and orgasms.[2] Sexsomnia episodes may be triggered by physical contact with a bed partner.[7]

Sexsomnia, which is a fairly new medically recognized behaviour, has been used in criminal defense cases of rape.[2][3][4][5]

History

The first research paper that suggested that sexual behavior during sleep may be a new type of parasomnia was published in 1996 by three researchers from the University of Toronto (Colin Shapiro and Nik Trajanovic) and the University of Ottawa (Paul Fedoroff).[8] The term "sleepsex" was used in a 1998 case report by David Saul Rosenfeld, a neurologist and sleep specialist from Los Angeles.[9] The term "sexsomnia" was coined by Colin Shapiro in a case report published in June 2003.[10]

Psychology

Sleep sex may accompany relationship difficulties and feelings of embarrassment.[11] Often the actions of the person who has sexsomnia are reported by his or her partner as the sexsomniac is unaware of the event.[11]

Clonazepam has been used as a first line of treatment for this condition,[12][13] when other measures are not enough to solve a case of sexsomnia.

Sexsomnia, although unknown to much of the population, makes many appearances in pop culture. The medical drama television series House included an episode dealing with sexsomnia in its first season, "Role Model", in which a woman who claimed she was not sexually active mysteriously became pregnant and found hickeys and other marks on her body. The titular character, Dr. House, eventually diagnosed the woman as a sexsomniac, explaining her strange situation.

In Summer 2017, Lifetime (TV network) released "Sleepwalking in Suburbia", a movie in which the main character Michelle (played by Emilie Ullerup) has sex with her neighbor while asleep. Michelle and her husband (played by Giles Panton) must navigate her sleep issues after her episodes take a possibly dark turn. The movie was directed by Alex Wright.

The condition has also been featured in episodes of many other television shows such as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit season 9, episode #2 "Avatar", and Desperate Housewives Season seven, episode #2, "You Must Meet My Wife". It has also been a theme in novels and plays. In Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man, a farmer claims to have had sex with his daughter while asleep. In the play Yakish and Popcha by Hanoch Levin, Yakish manages to have intercourse with his wife Popcha only while both are asleep, by the end of the play.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mangan, MA, Reips U (May 2007). "Sleep, sex, and the Web: Surveying the difficult-to-reach clinical population suffering from sexsomnia". Behavior Research Methods. 39 (2): 233–36. doi:10.3758/BF03193152.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Sexsomnia". Psychology Today. 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Sleep: Weird things people do in their sleep". BBC News. 28 November 2012.
  4. 1 2 "'Sexsomnia' claim actor Simon Morris guilty of raping girl". BBC News. 17 December 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Man cleared of raping teenager in his sleep". The Local. Sweden. 19 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "AMBIEN may cause serious side effects, including: - After taking AMBIEN, you may get up out of bed while not being fully awake and do an activity that you do not know you are doing. ... Reported activities include: ...- having sex" http://products.sanofi.us/ambien/ambien.pdf
  7. ↑ Trajanovic NN, Mangan M, Shapiro CM (December 2007). "Sexual behaviour in sleep: an internet survey". Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 42 (12): 1024–31. PMID 17932612. doi:10.1007/s00127-007-0258-0.
  8. ↑ Shapiro CM, Fedoroff JP, Trajanovic NN (1996). "Sexual behavior in sleep: a newly described parasomnia". Sleep Research. 25: 367.
  9. ↑ Rosenfeld DS, Elhajjar AJ (June 1998). "Sleepsex: a variant of sleepwalking". Arch Sex Behav. 27 (3): 269–78. PMID 9604116. doi:10.1023/A:1018651018224.
  10. ↑ Shapiro CM, Trajanovic NN, Fedoroff JP (June 2003). "Sexsomnia – A New Parasomnia?". Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 48 (5): 311–7. PMID 12866336.
  11. 1 2 Sexual behavior in sleep Retrieved on 3 March 2010
  12. ↑ Shapiro CM, Trajanovic NN, Fedoroff JP (June 2003). "Sexsomnia—a new parasomnia?". Can J Psychiatry. 48 (5): 311–7. PMID 12866336.
  13. ↑ A patient treated with clonazepam was featured on the television documentary Strange Sex that aired on TLC 27 January 2010
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