Sexomnia, or Sleep Sex, a legitimate medical disorder
Reported
November 03, 2009
sexomnia-sleep-sexSexomnia, also known as Sleep Sex or
informally as "banditing," is a form of parasomnia
(similar to sleepwalking) where the person afflicted
goes to great lengths to initiate sexual behavior while
sleeping.
Back in 1996, Dr. Colin Shapiro and Dr. Nik Trajanovic,
researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada, and
Dr. Paul Fedoroff from the University of Ottawa, Canada,
wrote a research paper on the sleep disorder. The paper,
entitled "Sexsomnia – A New Parasomnia?" was published
in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry in June 2003.
Before the paper was published, sleep sex or sexsomnia
sufferers and medical professionals alike were aware the
condition existed but were afraid to acknowledge it or
legitimize it for fear that friends and peers would
dismiss it as willful behavior rather than a legitimate
medical condition.
But after the paper, "Sexsomnia – A New Parasomnia?" was
published, sleep sex was further legitimized in both the
medical fields and legal system, being cited in court
cases worldwide as part of defense attorney’s cases
against rape and sexual assault charges against their
clients. In November 2005, a Toronto, Canada court
acquitted a man of sexual assault after it was brought
up in his defense that he had been diagnosed with
sexsomnia. The court’s decision was appealed but the
appeals hearing upheld their decision in 2008. An
American from New York was cleared of three rape charges
while visiting Britain in 2005 and a British RAF officer
was cleared of rape charges after using sexomnia to
explain that he was not in control of his actions when
he repeatedly raped a 15 year old girl in 2005.
Sexsomnia has also been widely discussed in the media in
different lights, from being a devastating disorder and
breaking up relationships to being a humorous measure of
one’s sex drive.
However it’s viewed, it is legitimate, although people
afflicted with sexomnia
often go for years without notifying their doctors of the symptoms for fear of
being ridiculed by friends and family.
Source : The Inquisitr |
