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Sexomnia a.k.a ‘sleep sex’ is real

Sexomnia.org identifies it as “a rare condition where a person engages in sexual activity during sleep”.

And, what is even more disturbing is that apart from it being medically recognised, the disorder has even been compared to more common sleep-related problems such as sleepwalking and talking, where ‘sufferers’ apparently have no recollection of their night-time antics  that – and this freaks me out the most – sometimes involves forceful, non-consensual sex.

Am I missing something here? Apparently .

Because “just as children often experience night terrors and confusional arousals, so do adults,” says Matthew Walker of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, adding that “only adults might get sexually stimulated by a dream or turned on by the mere touch of a partner in bed.

“At this time, the cortex — the thinking, planning, awareness part of the brain — gets switched off. But the brain stem, the part responsible for the basic urges like the drive to eat or have sex, is still working.

“By this stage, the sexsomniac is acting completely without inhibition. And because the lower level of the brain is amnesic, he or she will have no memory of what they’ve done.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t buy it...
 
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