Could you have sexsomnia? The little-known sleep condition that causes you to masturbate while unconscious

Experts are raising awareness of a rare sleep disorder that causes people to engage in sexual activity with a partner or themselves while asleep.

Sexsomnia can be an embarrassing problem that is believed to affect three times more men than women, though the total number of people suffering from it is not exactly clear.

And according to Dr. Carlos Schenck, senior staff psychiatrist at the Hennepin County Medical Center at the University of Minnesota, the unexpected sexual activity is 'alarming' many patients' partners in the dead of night. 

Studies estimate that roughly seven percent of the global population experience it at least once, and many typically cannot remember what they did in deep sleep and many are ashamed of it.

The exact cause of the parasomnial disorder is murky, though scientists believe there might be a genetic component. People with direct family members who have a parasomnia disorder are more likely to have it.

Sexsomnia is more common in men than women.  It causes people to engage in sexual activity with a partner or masturbate while asleep

Obstructive sleep apnea, which causes a person to stop breathing in their sleep for 10 seconds or more, may also be a trigger.

Sleep apnea may be the cause, though not always. Dartmouth doctors described the case of a 34-year-old woman who had been treated for it early but still experienced sexsomnia, which caused her to masturbate in her sleep but could not remember it in the morning.

The condition can be highly distressing to a person’s partner. One 26-year-old female Reddit user described her boyfriend one night reaching into her pants while ignoring his girlfriend’s objections.

She said he ‘doesn’t remember anything after an initial attempt (more like a dream fog where he finds himself doing something, not that he was conscious enough to intentionally do these things).

‘I let him know that he didn’t stop for a while, and I had to take his hand away several times before he actually stopped. He felt really bad and apologized.’

There are usually four to six cycles of sleep every night. One of them is non-REM, or rapid-eye-movement sleep, during which dreaming occurs.

The cycles each last around 90 minutes, and sexsomnia is most likely to occur outside of REM sleep as it is not related to dreaming.

Dr. Carlos Schenck told CNN: ‘These are disorders of arousal.

Woman shares her 'embarrassing' confession about her partner

An Australian woman has revealed that her husband has sex with her while he is sleeping. Nick suffers from a rare sleep condition called sexsomnia that causes him to initiate sex or sexual activities while asleep. 

‘They most often occur during the slowest, deepest stage of sleep, called delta sleep. It’s like an alarm or trigger goes off in the central nervous system, and you go from your basement to your roof in no time flat.’

Behaviors in men tend to be more aggressive, while women are more likely to masturbate. 

The disorder has been associated with cases of sexual assault. 

Other parasomnia disorders include sleep talking and sleepwalking.

Dr Schenck added: ‘Your cognition is deeply asleep, and you’re not with the program, but your body is activated. That’s dangerous because then you start walking and running and doing all sorts of things without your mind being awake.’

The condition can also be tied to stress. Dr Schenck treated a woman in Brazil who had been living with sexsomnia for at least 10 years. Her husband would often wake up to her moaning sexually, masturbating, or engaging him in sexual intercourse.

At times, her husband believed she was being unfaithful, as she often said names that were not his out loud. 

At one point, her nine-year-old son found her moaning sexually, which was extremely embarrassing for her.

She reported working at a high-stress job with tight deadlines. Her episodes stopped after she was transferred to a part of her work with almost no stress.

Dr Schenck said: ‘What is really disconcerting to these patients is they have total amnesia. It’s the bed partner or family member telling them, “You did this, why did you do that?” and then the patient says, “I don’t remember anything.”’

‘So they are really embarrassed, full of shame, very apologetic and totally miserable.’