Abstract
Background: Sleep sex also known as sexsomnia or somnambulistic sexual behavior is proposed to be classified as NREM (non-rapid eye movement) parasomnia (as a clinical subtype of disorders of arousal from NREM sleep—primarily confusional arousals or less commonly sleepwalking), but it has also been described in relation to REM (rapid eye movement) parasomnias. Methods: The authors searched the PubMed database to identify relevant publications and present the co-occurrence of sexsomnia and other sleep disorders as a non-systematic review with case series. Results: In the available literature the comorbidity of sexsomnia and other sleep disorders were reported mainly in case reports and less in case series. Sexsomnia was reported both with one and with multiple sleep-related disorders, with NREM parasomnias and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) being the most commonly reported. Furthermore, the authors enrich the article with new findings concerning two novel cases of sleep bruxism triggering recurrent sexsomnia episodes. Conclusions: Sexsomnia has still not been reported in the literature as often as other parasomnias. The coexistence of sexsomnia and other sleep-related disorders should be more thoroughly examined. This could help both in sexsomnia as well as other sleep-related disorders management.
Highlights
Parasomnias comprise a category of sleep disorders with abnormal physical events, experiences, and autonomic nervous system activity
Sleep sex is known as sexsomnia, or somnambulistic sexual behavior is proposed to be classified as a non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnia, but it has been described in relation to rapid eye movements (REM) parasomnias [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Sexsomnia has still not been reported in the literature as often as other parasomnias
Summary
Parasomnias comprise a category of sleep disorders with abnormal physical events (movements or behaviors), experiences (dreams, emotions, perceptions), and autonomic nervous system activity. Sleep sex known as sexsomnia or somnambulistic sexual behavior is proposed to be classified as NREM (non-rapid eye movement) parasomnia (as a clinical subtype of disorders of arousal from NREM sleep—primarily confusional arousals or less commonly sleepwalking), but it has been described in relation to REM (rapid eye movement) parasomnias. Results: In the available literature the comorbidity of sexsomnia and other sleep disorders were reported mainly in case reports and less in case series Sexsomnia was reported both with one and with multiple sleep-related disorders, with NREM parasomnias and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) being the most commonly reported. This could help both in sexsomnia as well as other sleep-related disorders management
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