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Sexsomnia Can Make People Initiate Sex While Completely Asleep

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24.08.2026

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Sexsomnia Can Make People Initiate Sex While Completely Asleep

Sexsomnia is a parasomnia that can trigger sexual behavior during sleep, often leaving the person with no memory of it by morning.

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Of course, you’ve heard of sleepwalking. Maybe you’ve done it, maybe you’ve lived with someone who has, maybe you just watched it happen at a sleepover in seventh grade and never fully recovered. Sexsomnia is the version of that nobody warned you about.

The condition falls under the same clinical umbrella as sleepwalking and sleep terrors, classified as a non-rapid eye movement parasomnia by Psychology Today. What that translates to in practice is that people can initiate sexual contact, masturbate, touch a bed partner, or attempt intercourse—completely asleep, no memory of it by morning. Not a sex........

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