Yes, sexsomnia is considered a relatively rare sleep disorder, a type of parasomnia, that involves sexual behavior during non-REM sleep, often linked to other sleep issues like sleep apnea or sleepwalking. While exact prevalence is unknown due to limited studies, it's uncommon enough to be recognized as a specific disorder, causing distress and confusion, and is treatable by addressing underlying triggers and conditions.
Sexsomnia is extremely rare, appearing most frequently in those who have another sleep disorder like sleepwalking. A study published in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that men are three times more likely than women to exhibit sexsomnia symptoms.
Sexual intercourse during sleep was reported by 48%. Precipitating factors for sexsomnia included physical contact with another person in bed (64%), stress (52%), fatigue (41%), alcohol use (14.6%), and drug use (4.3%).
World's Rarest Sleep Disorders
Talk to your partner or roommate.
Communication is key, whether it's a partner sleeping next to you or a roommate who may notice. They may be able to help identify episodes of sexsomnia that you don't know about, which can be helpful in addressing the issue with a professional.
The 2-2-2 rule for couples is a relationship guideline suggesting couples schedule regular quality time: a date night every 2 weeks, a weekend getaway every 2 months, and a longer, week-long vacation every 2 years to maintain romance and connection by stepping away from daily routines. It's a flexible framework to ensure intentional time together, preventing couples from getting too caught up in life's demands.
Catathrenia is a sleep-related breathing disorder that causes moaning or groaning during sleep. The noise happens as you exhale. It's loud and lasts for a couple of seconds or up to 40 seconds. It can happen nightly, during REM and non-REM sleep.
Like all prion diseases, FFI is invariably fatal. Life expectancy ranges from seven months to six years, with an average of 18 months.
Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS), also known as “sleeping beauty syndrome” or “familial hibernation syndrome,” is an extremely rare condition that causes intermittent episodes where you sleep for long periods of time, which prevents you from staying awake during the day (hypersomnia). KLS also affects your behavior.
Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a very rare and fatal inherited neurodegenerative prion disease. The mode of inheritance of this disease is autosomal dominant and involves a mutation of the prion protein (PRNP) gene, leading to atrophy in the thalamic nucleus.
Lust is desire without restraint and essentially that is what is happening with individuals who choose masturbation. Masturbation most often occurs when a person is thinking sexual thoughts about someone who is not his/her spouse. The "lust of the flesh" (1 John 2:16) is sin.
Diagnosing Sexsomnia
In addition, an overnight sleep study with full electroencephalogram (EEG) and video monitoring should be obtained in an effort to capture nocturnal sexual behaviors.
Characterized as a parasomnia, sexsomnia is a complex sleep disorder involving sexual behaviors during sleep, particularly during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Parasomnias occur in between sleep stages, where you act out awake-like behaviors even when you are still asleep.
Causes: The causes of sexsomnia are not entirely clear but may be related to other sleep disorders and external factors like stress and alcohol use. Diagnosis: A sleep study may help diagnose sexsomnia or identify another sleep disorder or medical condition associated with sexsomnia.
Sexsomnia itself isn't illegal, but actions performed while experiencing it (like sexual assault) are crimes; however, it can be used as a defense, arguing automatism (lack of conscious control) led to the act, potentially resulting in acquittal or a "not criminally responsible" verdict, though this defense is complex and requires strong medical proof to show lack of intent, as seen in cases where people were acquitted of sexual offenses by proving they were truly asleep and unaware, like the Sydney man acquitted of rape in 2025.
The rarest type of dream is often considered to be the lucid dream, where you are aware you're dreaming and can sometimes control the dream's narrative, with only a small percentage of people experiencing them regularly, though many have had one spontaneously. Even rarer are dreams with specific, unusual content, like dreaming of doing math, or experiencing rare neurological conditions like Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome, where people lose the ability to visualize dreams.
In 2012, at 17 years old, Delien started to bring awareness to KLS by appearing in a number of media events to provide a real-life example of the syndrome. The syndrome causes Delien to sleep for 18–19 hours a day on average and to sleep for longer stretches of time as well, including a 64-day block of time in 2012.
Kluver-Bucy syndrome (KBS) is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder due to lesions affecting bilateral temporal lobes, especially the hippocampus and amygdala. It is characterized by hyperorality, hypermetamorphosis, hypersexuality, bulimia, placidity, visual agnosia, and amnesia.
Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS).
People with KLS often sleep for 16 to 20 hours a day during an episode. This is very rare.
The koala is famous for sleeping around 20-22 hours a day, which is about 90% of the day, due to their low-energy diet of eucalyptus leaves that requires extensive digestion. Other extremely sleepy animals include the sloth (up to 20 hours) and the brown bat (around 20 hours), with some snakes like the ball python also sleeping up to 23 hours daily.
In January 1964, American student Randy Gardner sits on a bed next to various household objects he will later have to identify by memory as part of a sleep deprivation experiment in San Diego, Calif. Gardner set the world record during the experiment, staying awake for over 264 hours.
Sporadic Fatal Insomnia (sFI) is an extremely rare form of Sporadic CJD representing less than 1% of all cases. sFI has clinical and histopathologic features indistinguishable from those of Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI), but does not have the mutation on the prion gene that characterizes FFI.
Moaning can create a sense of shared vulnerability and trust. The sexual experience can feel more intimate and connected, strengthening the bond between you and your partner. Some experts suggest that men's attraction to a female moaning during sex may have evolutionary roots.
It is considered a parasomnia, which is a type of sleep disorder that involves abnormal behaviors during sleep. Sleepsex can include actions such as fondling, masturbation, or even sexual intercourse, all of which occur while the person is in a state of sleep and typically without their conscious awareness.
Talking in your sleep is a kind of parasomnia, or a disruptive sleep-related disorder that happens while you're sleeping. Unlike other parasomnias like sleepwalking or sleep-related eating disorder that can carry significant risks to your health and well-being, sleep talking usually has little to no risk.