notes: sexsomnia.
Sexsomnia was recently in the news: a man was just acquitted of sexual assault charges on the grounds of sexsomnia, or “non-insane automatism.” Via UPI. Snarkified via Jezebel. (Thank you for this, EP.)
To revisit the subject, sexsomnia is a parasomnia, and parasomnias are disorders in which the body’s physiological systems are activated during sleep, so while the rest of us are in bed, parasomniacs are going for a stroll, or organizing their cabinets, or humping their bed-mates. Those with the propensity to hump are sexsomniacs.
The interesting thing about sexsomnia is that the sleepsex personality is often very different from the wakeful personality, and that aspect fascinates me. It makes me wonder a bit about how our sexual minds work.
My own warped and weirdly satisfying relationship with a sexsomniac is here: one, two, three.
the comments on the jezebel article suggest that a) this occurs quite a bit more than i previously thought (the first time i heard about sexsomnia was when you blogged it) and b) it will be a challenge for the mainstream public to understand and accept the veracity of this condition.
Actually reading your first blog about parasomnia I was wondering if anyone had been charged with sexual assault over it.
It’s interesting hear the stories.