Many sleep disorders can involve sexual behaviors

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A wide range of sleep disorders carry some risk of inappropriate sexual behaviors during sleep, or even waking hours, according to a new report.

Abnormal sexual activities during sleep -- known as "sexsomnia" or "sleepsex" -- include anything from moaning to masturbating to making sexual advances toward a bed partner, all while in a state somewhere between deep sleep and wakefulness.

Sexsomnia is officially recognized as a subtype of parasomnia, a group of disorders that includes sleepwalking, sleep talking and night terrors, among others.

But abnormal sexual behaviors can affect people with a wide range of sleep-related disorders, according to the new report, published in the journal Sleep.

Inappropriate sexual behaviors have been described in people with sleep disorders as diverse as parasomnias, severe insomnia and restless legs syndrome.

In some cases, the sexual behaviors are not sexsomnia, but occur during waking hours, explained Dr. Carlos H. Schenck, the lead author of the report and a senior staff psychiatrist at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis.

One example is Kleine-Levin syndrome, a rare disorder that causes recurrent bouts of excessive drowsiness and sleep. People with this disorder sleep for stretches of 16 to 24 hours, but when awake, some may become extremely "hypersexual" and uninhibited.

"We wanted to call attention to how virtually all known categories of sleep disorders carry a risk for inappropriate sexual behaviors," said Schenck, who is also author of the book Sleep: The Mysteries, the Problems, and the Solutions.

This is important, he told Reuters Health, because people with these problems should be aware that they are part of a sleep-related disorder that can be diagnosed and treated -- and not a sign of perversion.

In the case of sexsomnia, the problem is usually a "disorder of arousal" from non-dream sleep. This means that people are partially aroused from deep sleep, resulting in a "twilight sleep-wake state" where they unconsciously act, with seriously impaired judgment.

In their report, Schenck and his colleagues detail the range of sleep disorders that can be accompanied by sexsomnia or waking-hour sexual problems.

The parasomnias and Kleine-Levin syndrome are the disorders most commonly associated with abnormal sexual behaviors. But other sleep disorders can involve such behaviors as well.

For instance, Schenck said, there have been a few reported cases among men with obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during the night, causing symptoms like loud snoring and daytime drowsiness.

These cases came to light when the men's partners complained that they were trying to have sex with them while snoring.

Similarly, sexsomnia has been reported among people suffering from sleep-related epileptic seizures.

Schenck said that people who think they have sexsomnia or waking-hour problems should talk to their doctors, who may then refer them to a sleep center for a full evaluation.

On the other hand, he noted, there is such a thing as "normal" sleepsex. Some couples have no issue with the behavior, and in fact find it more exciting and amorous than their waking-hour routines.

In these cases, Schenck said, sleepsex wouldn't be considered a "problem."

SOURCE: Sleep, June 1, 2007.