Sleepwalking Australian woman enticed and had sex with
strangers, doctor says
Canadian Press
Thursday, October 14, 2004
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - A woman seduced and had sex with
strangers while she slept and later had no recollection of her
infidelities due to a sleeping disorder, her Sydney doctor said
Thursday.
The middle-aged woman had no idea that she was sneaking from her
house at night in search of sex with random strangers until her
partner awoke, discovered she was missing from the bedroom, and
found her having sex with another man, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
sleep medicine physician Peter Buchanan told the Sydney Morning
Herald.
Her partner was already aware that she was a sleep walker and also
had been confounded by condoms he found strewn around the house,
Buchanan said.
Buchanan will discuss the case when he lectures on sleep sex - the
disorder has yet to be given a formal title - at the Annual
Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association in Sydney
at the weekend.
"It is very complex, elaborated motor behaviour during sleep,"
Buchanan told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Thursday.
"People are often stunned and overwhelmed when they're told what
they've been doing."
The partners and doctors of people suffering from the disorder
often do not believe the acts were committed while they slept, he
said.
"It's very stressful both for them, for their partner or for their
relationship," Buchanan said. "It also promotes an intense sense of
embarrassment on their part, their partner's behalf and this
inhibits people coming forward to seek potentially helpful
professional intervention."
