Sleepsex: a variant of sleepwalking

Abstract

Sexual acts performed by a sleeping subject have been rarely reported. Two cases are now presented involving sexual behavior performed while asleep. The first case involves the hitherto unreported association of sleepsex with sleepeating. The second case concerns a rarely reported act of sexual battery by a known sleepwalker, and the use of somnambulism as a legal defense. Sexual behavior in sleep may be pleomorphic and more common than realized in both the patient and normal populations.