There are all sorts of reasons people are unable to sleep: menopause, depression, guilt, insomnia, discomfort, sleep apnea…the list goes on and on. Believe it or not, a new issue has been added to the list: sexsomnia.
What is sexsomnia, and how does it keep sufferers up at night? Sexsomniacs are people who initiate and/or engage in sexual activity while sleeping.
Awareness of the disorder is fairly new; this first of its kind study was done at a Toronto, Canada sleep disorder center. The study focused on 832 sleep disorder patients and found that 7.6% of patients had or reported having sexsomnia. The rate of sexsomnia is nearly three times as high in men as it is in women. A just published study brought light on this issue.
Though 7% seems like an outrageously high number for such an issue, it’s not when taken in context: the only people polled were those who admit to suffering from sleep disorders. The number, though not tested, can be assumed to be significantly lower in general populations.
Researched by Toronto’s University Health Network, the findings were presented at SLEEP 2010, an annual sleep professional convention. In the study, each of the 832 patients answered questionnaires about sleeping and nighttime behavior. Sexsomniacs had similar symptoms to other patients relating to fatigue, mood, caffeine and nicotine intake and insomnia. The major difference came with illicit drug use: sexsomniacs were twice as likely to use drugs. Of the 428 men and 404 women involved in the study, only 4 complained about the issue during meetings with sleep specialists.
Sleepsex and the Sexsomniac
Sexsomnia or Sleep sex is also known as “somnambulistic sexual behaviour” (conversationally named as banditing). It is in recent times described as a class of parasomnia. Sexsomniacs or those who endure from an uncommon sleep trouble engross themselves in intersexual enactments whilst they are fast asleep. This also happens when they’re unconscious. Sufferers who are somnambulating and engrossing in sexual activities are actually incognizant of doing anything.
Sexsomnia was not even accepted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine until the year 2005. The condition is an exceedingly uncommon condition, the term “sexsomnia” is not well known. This disease has a few distinguishable characteristics that differentiate it from sleepwalking. It is a habitual condition and hence discussion is necessary. The condition is induced by either the body’s reaction to endocrines or the body’s reaction to some unconscious mental issues.
Sleep sex or sexsomnia is a condition of non rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) parasomnia (analogous to sleepwalking) that drives folks to absorb in intimate acts while they are fast asleep. Sleep sex can be an awkward matter, and most aren’t eager to share their circumstances with other people, but fortunately sexsomnia is treatable. Sleep loss and predominant stimulations from sleep will worsen or cause confusional arousals. Sleep walking is also in the class of “confusional arousal” and force is not uncommon with sleep waking, particularly in men, that is why it is advised not trying to wake them. Sleep sex is not generally a trouble for people who demonstrate their sexual behaviors with their spouses but can be in issue if they demonstrate with others. Sexsomnia is not all of the time hard or extreme for those who go through it or for their mates.
