Sexsomnia is a condition where a sleeping person pounces on a roommate and demands for sex and proceeds to take position in a violent way. He is usually strong, determined and scares most women into submission. He gets on with the sexual act in a loud and violent way but in all these episodes, the patient is deep asleep and has no memory of whatever happened if asked the following morning.
This mental condition was first identified in 1996 by Dr David Saul Rosenfeld, a neurologist and a Sleep Doctor Consultant from Los Angeles California. He termed the condition as Sleep Sex, but it later was later described as sexsomnia by three researchers from Sleep Alertness Clinic of the University of Toronto, Canada led by Dr. C.M Shapiro. The Doctors said it was a distinct variation of sleep walking.
A person suffering from this condition has a complete disconnection between the mind and the body during sleep. A sexsomnia person does not distinguish whether it is a daughter, mother, or sister-he goes ahead and gropes any female and tries to have sex with them. The condition becomes problematic if the patient is sleeping in a public place like a dormitory, bus or Hospital.
In one documented case, a 45 year old male sleep walked to the bed room of a 14 year old girl who was a friend to his daughter spending the night at his home and began fondling her. She screamed and called the police. He was arrested but was later to serve as a study case of sexsomnia.
Because of the complexity of this disease, many patients who get caught committing sexual offences in their sleep have been sentenced to many years in prison but this is being critically re-examined by courts of law in recent years as shown by the following examples;
- In November 2005, a Toronto Court acquitted a man of sexual assault after he was diagnosed with sex sleep
- In Britain, a man from York city was cleared of three counts of rape after he was found with sexsomnia in December 2005
- In 2007 August, a British Mechanic was cleared of rape after the jury found him with sexsomnia when he assaulted a 15 year old girl
- In Australia, a woman was reported as leaving her house at night and having sex with strangers while sleepwalking. It took her husband a lot of convincing to make him believe she was not a sex worker.
In Europe and America, Doctors are advised to treat patients with muscle relaxants like valium and other treatments for breathing disturbances and sleep problems like apnoea. Patients are also given psychotherapy.
In couples where one can not stand sexsomnia, one is advised to sleep in separate bedrooms and all bed room doors should be locked properly at night. Experts also advise people with sleep sex to avoid common event precipitating factors such as drugs, alcohol, fatigue arising from sleep deprivation and stress.
