You sometimes make insomnia. But do you ever have “sexsomnias”? Let’s hope not! This is not sex naps but sex-like behavior during sleep. This disorder is controversial and divides the community of experts, psychiatrists and lawyers.
A recent Swedish judgment should fuel the scientific battle a little more around the acceptance of this recent term (1990s) among pathologies. Especially when sexsomnia is involved in criminal cases. A 26-year-old Swede has just been acquitted of rape on appeal, overturning the first judgment which sentenced him to two years in prison.
The court held that the defendant did not “intend” to perform a sexual act, because he suffered from sexsomnia. The judgment rendered on September 8 recognizes this pathology. It “is not absurd” that the man “was in a state of sleep, unaware of what was happening”. This decision was made after the advice of a sleep disorders expert and doctors. The former companion of the acquitted also cleared the Swede.
A parasomnia?
Sexsomnia is classified according to some experts among the parasomnias, sleep disorders that give rise to abnormal and unconscious movements, emotions, perceptions and dreams during sleep, without people realizing it. They have no memory of it.
According to British neurologist Matthew Walker, professor of neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, sexsomnia “does exist” and should be considered “a real disease”. The expert assures that people who suffer from it tend to experience these sexual relations during the first hours of the night, when the brain is in a deep sleep phase. This is characterized by a decrease in physical and cerebral activity. If it is possible to dream, no one remembers his dreams.
