health reporter
Researchers are seeking to formally classify a new family of abnormal sexual behaviours or "sexsomnias" that occur while people are asleep.
Ranging from masturbation to fondling to unconscious rape, sleep-related sexual abnormalities need to be properly categorized and labelled so physicians will recognize them when they crop up, according to a paper published today in the journal SLEEP.
"We wanted to call attention to how sexuality looms throughout all the known disorders of sleep," says Dr. Carlos Schenck, a University of Minnesota psychiatrist and the paper's lead author.
Schenck says a computer search of peer-reviewed journals and other sources uncovered more than 125 cases dating to 1986 that provide the basis for the new classification system. They include:
31 cases resulting from parasomnias, which is especially unstable delta sleep, a period of the slowest brain wave activity. Usually associated with sleepwalking, it has resulted in sexual talking, masturbation, fondling, sexual intercourse and aggressive sexual behaviour. Several rapes have been associated with this sleep state. Seven incidents of epileptic seizures during sleep that have brought on intense orgasms, grabbing of partners and violent masturbation. 78 cases of Kleine-Levin syndrome, which causes intense and lengthy bouts of sleep. Dr. Chanth Seyone, a sleep expert and director of the Acquired Brain Injury Clinic at Toronto's University Health Network, says the sexsomnia field is still very contentious among researchers.
Source : www.thestar.com
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