Sleepwalking woman had sex with strangers

[Akasha]

Sleep medicine experts have successfully treated a rare case of a woman having sex with strangers while sleepwalking.

The behaviour had disrupted the lives of the woman and her partner. At night while asleep, the middle-aged sleepwalker - who lives in Australia and cannot be identified for reasons of confidentiality - left her house and had sexual intercourse with strangers. The behaviour continued for several months and the woman had no memory of her nocturnal activities.

Circumstantial evidence, such as condoms found scattered around the house, alerted the couple to the problem. On one occasion, her partner awoke to find her missing, went searching for her and found her engaged in the sex act.

“Incredulity is the leading player in cases like this,� says Peter Buchanan, the sleep physician at the Wool**** Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, who handled the case. But a combination of factors convinced him that the case was a real sleepwalking phenomenon, including the distress of the couple, and an in-depth clinical evaluation.

Sleep talking

During that evaluation, the patient was assessed by psychiatrists, and checked for physical problems such as brain tumours, which may cause unusual behaviour. Neither of those examinations could find a cause.

However, she was found to have a history of talking in her sleep as a teenager and when monitored in the sleep laboratory, she was found to have a higher number of arousals from deep sleep than is usual. Both of these factors might indicate a susceptibility to abnormal sleep behaviour.

However, Roger Allen, a sleep specialist in private practice in Brisbane is sceptical. “Sex is a primal behaviour so it’s not impossible - men have erections in their sleep after all - but this case involved such complex behaviour it seems less likely.� He also points out that eliminating psychiatric conditions as a cause of the behaviour would be difficult.

Sleep driving

But there are some extraordinary cases of sleep walkers leaving their homes, driving cars, or engaging in behaviours that they would not usually. In 1987, Ken Parks, drove 23 kilometres from his home in Pickering, Ontario, to his in-laws house, where he strangled his father-in-law unconscious, and stabbed his mother-in-law to death. He was acquitted of murder because he was sleepwalking at the time.

“People in a state of automatism don’t have access to their full range of beliefs and desires, so it seems justifiable to excuse them,� says Neil Levy of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne.

Sleepwalking is often triggered by stress, and this may have been the case with the Sydney woman, says Buchanan. She stopped her night-time excursions after psychiatric counselling. Drugs such as benzodiazepines, which are sometimes used to treat sleep walkers, were not necessary.

Any type of sleepwalking is rare. It occurs in around 3% of children and young adolescents, and about 0.5% of adults. Usually it involves little more than walking around in a fairly purposeful way while asleep, although sleepwalkers may lash out if awoken.

The results were presented at a sleep conference in Sydney on Friday.

Source : New Scientist

[boscolio]

i'm amazed she was able to find people to suddenly have sex with her on the street. then again, knowing the mind of the average guy, i'm not amazed at all. :oops:

[Corrupt_magi]

Oh great something else to worry about....Now all those times my mother said I ran through the house sleepwalking screaming about a shark are coming back... :?

[Fain]

The world needs more women to sleepwalk. :p

[Akasha]

I've never sleepwalked (?) before, although my mother has... used to get up butt naked, open the front door which was chained and deadbolted to go out the front and water the garden. 3am in the morning my mother watered the garden naked :lol:

My problem is sleep talking... all my life if I lied about something, give me 2-4 nights and I will confess it in my sleep. The guys my mum dated, who of course as a teenager I hated used to get so much dirt on me that way.

[Worlokk]

Didnt believe a word I read there ;), about the horny woman with a poor sex-life, or the man with a need to legally justify his parents murder :oops:...
Sorry :p

[boscolio]

don't about the sleep-sexer but i remember when the guy accused of killing his parents in his sleep went up for trial. so that story has some merit.l

[Akasha]

about the horny woman with a poor sex-life

If you actually read the story properly, it had nothing to do with a poor sex-life. "Sleepwalking is often triggered by stress" It happened in Sydney (which is in Australia... where I life) and was even on late night news.

A most men would know (old enough that is) the human body does wierd things at night...

[boscolio]

Originally Posted by Akasha

A most men would know (old enough that is) the human body does wierd things at night...

lol, my girlfriend will make jokes in the morning when such things occur. i get a good laugh out of her but she has been known to make others cry. :lol:

[Worlokk]

Originally Posted by Akasha

If you actually read the story properly, it had nothing to do with a poor sex-life. "Sleepwalking is often triggered by stress" It happened in Sydney (which is in Australia... where I life) and was even on late night news.

A most men would know (old enough that is) the human body does wierd things at night...

I read the story properly thankyou :?, but im instinctively assuming that it was an excuse for getting hot with the fireman, postman and the guy next door :p, look it was a joke... okeys ;)?
Im sure that sleep walking is triggered by stress, but to what extent? I still don't buy it... [size=10px]never mind my opinion though...[/size]