Getting To Know Sexsomnia, A Person's Condition For Sexual Relations When Sleeping

Sexual health illustration (Pexels/Anna Nekrashevich)

JAKARTA - There are sleep disorders that many people hide or are uncomfortable to talk about if they experience them. The sleep disorder is sexomnia.

Sexomnia is a type of parasomnia, sleep disturbance characterized by abnormal behavior, experience, or physiological events that occur during sleep, during sleep, or when awakened from sleep, quoted from Healthshots on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

In a publication in the journal Sleep Science, in all reported cases of sexomnia, memories of these sexual events are disrupted either overall or almost overall. This is considered a non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnia and can be very troublesome for individuals and their partners.

Sexomnia can occur due to disturbances in the normal sleep cycle. Factors that trigger this disorder are stress, lack of sleep, and irregular sleep patterns every day. Sexualnia is also associated with other sleep disorders, such as walking while sleeping.

Sexomnia can also occur due to trauma, especially those related to sexual experience. Consumption of alcohol and illegal drugs can also increase the risk of sexomnia occurring.

Symptoms of sexomnia usually include having sexual activity while sleeping without being realized by the sufferer. Sexual activity starts from intimidating, having sex, and making sexual sounds or shaking.

People who experience sexomnia usually don't know what happened to them. They may only know about the disturbance from their partner, or family members who live with them.

To overcome sexomnia, there are several treatment methods that can be done. Such as increasing sleep time and quality, overcoming underlying sleep disorders, managing existing stress, to consulting with a doctor or sleep expert for better treatment.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be effective in reducing stress and anxiety. The stress felt is reduced and recovered, the sexomnia experienced can recover and sleep is of higher quality.