If you sleep drowsy at night and your partner insists on begging you for love, but you wake up the next day but you don't remember it at all, will you feel terrified and broken? This is really not necessarily the situation in the novel. Some researchers have counted similar cases and believe that "sexsomnia" is a sleeping abnormality (parasomnia, which refers to strange behaviors or unusual actions when sleeping at night) It does exist.
rugged case
Colin M Shapiro, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto in Canada, conducted a case study[1]. The researchers focused on 11 cases of sexual intercourse during sleep. Compared with ordinary sleepwalking, "sexsomnia" has some unique properties, such as more pronounced unconscious arousal, more restricted and specific movement, and some specific dreams.
These 11 cases also have their own ruggedness. For example, the wife of a bodyguard accused her husband of having sex with her repeatedly at night despite her wishes, but she couldn't remember anything when she got up the next morning. There is also a female announcer. Her husband is often awakened in the middle of the night. After waking up, she realizes that she is masturbating. But this announcer has no idea what she did. A female clinical scientist has a similar situation. And because of this, I got into trouble with my husband. In a more rugged case, a man suddenly woke up in his dream and found that his 16-year-old nephew who was living in his house was stroking his (uncle) testicles! But the nephew said he had no idea about it. Some cases involving children will not be discussed here.
Although "sexsomnia" is not very common, and there are only 11 cases in this study, the researchers tried to find some commonalities.
Is "sexsomnia" rare?
11 cases are obviously a bit small, but the researchers will certainly not stop there. Shapiro and his colleagues at the University of Toronto published a survey based on Internet questionnaires in 2007. They surveyed 832 subjects, of which 7.6% had "dream sex", and the proportion of men was even higher (11% among male subjects and 4% among female subjects). It should be noted that these people have sought help from a doctor due to sleep disorders, so they cannot represent the general population.
The researchers also found that although patients who have had "sexsomnia" and those with sleep disorders, in general, have used illegal drugs, the proportion of this population is 15.9% among "dreamers" and among those with general sleep disorders. Only 7.7%, the researchers, therefore, infer that the phenomenon of "dream sex" may have a certain relationship with drug abuse. In addition, there is no significant difference in fatigue and depression between "sexsomnia" patients and general sleep disorders.
Researchers also believe that they may have underestimated the number of "dream sex" patients because, during treatment, patients rarely talk to the doctor about this. Among the 63 "dreaming" patients found through the questionnaire survey, only 4 had mentioned "dreaming" with their doctors. It can be seen that the number of patients with "dream sex" is probably underestimated.
However, the judgment of "Mengjiao" must be very careful. A lawyer once succeeded in winning a lawsuit to exonerate the defendant on the grounds that the male defendant was a "dream sex" patient.
The addition of sex dolls are maybe even more different.
