sexsomnia

Sexual behavior during sleep, known as sexual parasomnias, has captured the interest of researchers and clinicians. These parasomnias involve various sexual activities that occur unconsciously during sleep. Although relatively rare, they can profoundly affect well-being and relationships and can carry legal consequences. Understanding their nature, prevalence, and causes is crucial for advancing knowledge in this field. This article revisits the topic of sexsomnia, presenting new data and discussing cases published from 2007 to 2023...

Although many sleep-related behaviors are benign, others can result in physical or sexual aggression toward bed partners or others. Individuals who engage in sleep-related violence (SRV) and sexual behavior in sleep (SBS) may face legal sanctions for their behavior. Attorneys or legal decision-makers may call on an expert to evaluate a defendant and opine about the veracity of an alleged parasomnia diagnosis, the criminal responsibility of the defendant, and his risk of violence to others. This article reviews the phenomena of SRV and SBS and guides evaluators in the forensic considerations relevant to parasomnias...

Parasomnias are defined as abnormal movements or behaviors that occur in sleep or during arousals from sleep. Parasomnias vary in frequency from episodic events that arise from incomplete sleep state transition. The framework by which parasomnias are categorized and diagnosed is based on the International Classification of Sleep Disorders-Third Edition, Text Revision (ICSD-3-TR), published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The recent Third Edition, Text Revision (ICSD-3-TR) of the ICSD provides an expert consensus of the diagnostic requirements for sleep disorders, including parasomnias, based on an extensive review of the current literature...

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To help expert witnesses in criminal cases using the "sleepwalking defense", we studied the time of first and last interruptions from stage N3 in patients with arousal disorders, including sexsomnia, as well as their determinants. METHODS: The epochs of lights off, sleep onset, first N3 interruption (with and without behaviors), and last N3 interruption were determined by videopolysomnography on two consecutive nights in 163 adults with disorders of arousal, including 46 with and 117 without sexsomnia...

BACKGROUND: Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnias are often benign and transient, requiring no formal treatment. However, parasomnias can also be chronic, disrupt sleep quality, and pose a significant risk of harm to the patient or others. Numerous behavioral strategies have been described for the management of NREM parasomnias, but there have been no published comprehensive reviews. This systematic review was conducted to summarize the range of behavioral and psychological interventions and their efficacy...

Sleep-related sexualized behaviors occur in the parasomnia known as sexsomnia, recognized as a variant of confusional arousals in the ICSD-3. These instinctive behaviors of a sexual nature emerge from deep NREM sleep and patients often present with distinguishing features within this sleep disorder category. There are often adverse psychosocial consequences, and not uncommonly medico-legal implications. While associations to psychiatric consequences from the sexsomnia have been demonstrated and efforts to further typify this condition have been made, sexsomnia remains incompletely characterized in the more than 200 published cases to date, with male predominance...

Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep parasomnias are recurrent abnormal behaviors emerging as incomplete arousals out of NREM sleep. Mounting evidence on NREM sleep parasomnias calls for an update of clinical and therapeutical strategies. In the current review, we summarize the state of the art and provide the necessary background to stimulate a critical revision of diagnostic criteria of disorders of arousal (DoA), the most common NREM sleep parasomnia. In particular, we highlight the poor sensitivity of the diagnostic items related to amnesia and absence of conscious experiences during DoA episodes, encourage the role of video-polysomnography and home-video recordings in the diagnostic and treatment work-up, and suggest three levels of diagnostic certainty based on clinical and objective findings...

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To establish whether the recent EEG and behavioral criteria of arousal disorders apply to sexsomnia. METHODS: EEG and behavioral markers upon N3 sleep interruptions in videopolysomnography were retrospectively compared in 24 participants with sexsomnia, 41 participants with arousals disorders, and 40 healthy controls. The specificity and sensitivity of previously suggested EEG and behavioral cutoffs for supporting arousal disorders diagnosis were measured in the sexsomnia vs...

UNLABELLED: Sexualised behaviour in sleep (SBS) is a relatively rare parasomnia consisting of instinctive behaviours of a sexual nature occurring during non-rapid-eye movement (NREM) sleep. Little information exists at present regarding the clinical features and onset of this condition as well as its link to psychiatric comorbidity, other sleep disorders and history of adverse early life experience. Aims were to typify the condition further and compare features of SBS patients to those with other NREM parasomnias...

AIM: To establish patterns or themes of dreams and dreamlike mentation content reported in all forms of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnias and to identify gaps in the current understanding of this topic. METHODS: A scoping review of available evidence on dreams and dreamlike mentation in NREM parasomnias was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We searched peer-reviewed literature using Google Scholar, PubMed, Ovid (Embase), Ovid Medline®, Global Health, and APA Psych Info...

Disorders of arousal (DOA) is an umbrella term initially covering classical sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and confusional arousals, and now including a wider spectrum of specialised forms of non rapid eye movement (non REM) parasomnias such as sexsomnia, sleep-related eating disorder, and sleep-related choking syndrome. Growing evidence has shown that DOA are not restricted to children but are also prevalent in adults (2%-4% of the adult population). While DOA run in family, genetics studies remain scarce and inconclusive...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

We describe a 42-year-old married woman diagnosed with sexsomnia as a NREM parasomnia, who sought medical assistance motivated by relationship problems with her husband after two sexsomnia episodes. This is the second case of sexsomnia reported in Brazil, but the first case with comprehensive follow-up. The patient was clinically evaluated, no psychiatric history was found, and she denied using pharmaceutical or recreational drugs. A video-polysomnography documented nine episodes of short- lasting abrupt awakening from N2 and N3, indicating a non-REM parasomnia, some with masturbation characteristics...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Long before being described as a disorder, sleepwalking was considered as a mysterious phenomenon inspiring artwork. From the early beginning of cinema, sleepwalkers were shown to populations, playing a crucial role in storytelling and collective knowledge. OBJECTIVE: We characterized how sleepwalking has been portrayed in a large number of movies from the origins of cinema to recent years. METHODS: Movies containing the words "sleepwalking" or "somnambulism" were searched for in International Movie Databases...

Sexsomnia is a type of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnia in which sexual behaviors arise during sleep; these behaviors are varied and can include masturbation, orgasms with or without self-stimulation, sexual vocalizations and talking, and sexual fondling and/or intercourse with the bed partner. The military creates a challenging environment, with sleep deprivation, shift work, and increased psychosocial stress that may predispose service members to an increased risk for all NREM parasomnias, including sexsomnia...

Sexsomnia is a non-rapid eye movement parasomnic behavior characterized by sexual activity during sleep. Recognized in the most recent editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, sexsomnia is likely to arise with increasing frequency in court as a potential explanation for sexual offending. The forensic psychiatrist has a unique role in the evaluation and management of sexsomnia. The psychosexual evaluation may elucidate the presence or absence of paraphilias and paraphilic disorders and identify any overlap between the alleged sexsomnic behavior and paraphilic interest...

Parasomnias are abnormal behaviors and/or experiences emanating from or associated with sleep typically manifesting as motor movements of varying semiology. We discuss mainly nonrapid eye movement sleep and related parasomnias in this article. Sleepwalking (SW), sleep terrors (ST), confusional arousals, and related disorders result from an incomplete dissociation of wakefulness from nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Conditions that provoke repeated cortical arousals, and/or promote sleep inertia, lead to NREM parasomnias by impairing normal arousal mechanisms...

Sexsomnias are unconscious sexual behaviors during sleep (parasomnias) that are garnering more attention as they become increasingly evident in forensic cases. Presentations of sexsomnia in active duty service members are seldom described, and often evaluation is clouded by intoxication with substances such as alcohol, sleep deprivation, untreated sleep disturbances, or criminal behavior masquerading as a medical disorder. We present a case of a 40-year-old male soldier evaluated in our sleep clinic for multiple episodes of sleep masturbation occurring over a period of 2 years...

Sexsomnia is a parasomnia consisting of sexual behavior during non-rapid eye movement sleep. To date, there have been 116 clinical cases of sexsomnia reported and most were treated with clonazepam. We present a case of an adult male with sexsomnia that started during his college days. He presented to us because of problems in his current marriage arising from sexual behavior during sleep. Polysomnography revealed no significant sleep-disordered breathing, electroencephalography abnormality, or abnormal movement during non-rapid eye movement and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep...