Sleepsex, an Alibi for Rape?

'Sleepsex,' where the patient engages in non typical sexual activities when they are asleep, has been formally classified as an underlying sleep disorder, not an underlying sexual disorder. This is a worrying classification as it makes it possible for the next rapist to look surprised and ask, "Who, me? I've been sleeping. How could I possible have raped anyone?" It worked before.

There was the case of the 33 year old man, who was acquitted of rape two years ago in Canada. After the man met a woman at a party, they went back to his place and she fell asleep on the sofa. She woke up to find the man having sex with her. He testified that he only knew he had been having sex when he went to the bathroom and found he was wearing a condom (Condoms kind of make it difficult for a man to pee, so he was bound to find that out anyway, but putting one on when he was sleeping? I find that hard (if you'll excuse the pun) to believe, as it can be almost impossible to do so when awake and sober.

One point of view could be that the woman, merely by going back to his home meant she was a willing accomplice, and perhaps she was annoyed that she was asleep and missed most of it, but that does not excuse his having sex with her as she slept. Leaving out the fact that sex without any input from the partner would make the average guy go limp, a physician says that Sleepsex is 'almost impossible to fake as you are asleep at the time, and it is not under voluntary control.' Pardon me for being stupid, but men don't have voluntary control over a raging penis anyway. It would overrule any conscience the man may have for the nanosecond it would take him to climax. As for not being able to fake it? All the rapist would have to do is pretend he'd been asleep and attend a sleep lab for a few months.

The researchers from the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, and Stanford University explain that more and more reports are coming in of sexual behavior while asleep. The partners of 'sleepsex' sufferers say that their other half's become glassy-eyed and distant? I ask you, does this not describe most men as they climax; that's one look nobody could fake.

One woman whose partner sleep-sexed, (only 20% of Sleepsex sufferers are women), said that she would love it if he did the same biting and dirty talk when they were having sex when he was awake. Has she ever told her partner what she likes or dislikes? Perhaps all the masturbation, biting, and dirty talk during sleep is due to a lack of communication during waking hours?

How about you? Are you too embarrassed to tell your partner what you like sex wise, and instead play it out in your dreams? Is this why, according to a Durex survey, that virtual reality sex by phone, text or email is an increasing phenomenon? And to think that researchers wonder why the birth rate is falling!

Sources: ottawacitizen.com
durex.com