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People have been known to walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, eat in their sleep and engage in other types of bizarre behavior. These are what are called parasomnias, unwanted and involuntary behaviors during sleep.

It would never occur to most people that a person would have sex while sound asleep. But for a small segment of the population, sex and sleep occur at the same time and it can be both emotionally and legally disastrous.

In 2005, a survey of sexsomniacs conducted by a researcher at the Toronto Western Hospital in Canada revealed the disorder is a lot more common than as suggested by medical reports. Just how many people have it is impossible to determine because it is rarely reported and it is something physicians do not inquire about.

Sexsomniacs engage in the complete spectrum of sexual behaviors. One man reported how he masturbated in his dentist's chair after he fell asleep. Another man masturbated so violently in his sleep that he regularly bruised his penis and suffered from persistent groin soreness.

Aggressive behavior is common, especially when directed at a partner. The founder of sleepsex.org spoke of how she would attack her boyfriends on an almost nightly basis, aggressively attempting to initiate sex. Yet the next morning she woud have no recollection of it and had to be informed of it by her boyfriends.

Sexsomnia has been used as the defence in cases involving sexual assault. But there is no way of distinguishing the liars from the true sufferers as currently there is no clear way to diagnose the disorder.

Sexsomnia is believed to arise from irregular brain activity and may be a variant of sleepwalking. In this state, the person is partly awake and partly asleep. As yet there is no cure.

The above was based upon an article that appeared in New Scientist. Online access to the complete text is restricted to subscribers only.

However, I did find another article from ABC News on this subject matter. If you are interested in reading further, go here.