Nocturnal emission

Nocturnal emission is an ejaculation of semen experienced by a male during sleep. Nocturnal emission is also called a “wet dream”, an involuntary orgasm, or simply an orgasm during sleep. Wet dreams begin during puberty when your body starts making more testosterone, a male hormone. Some boys may feel embarrassed or even guilty about having wet dreams. But they’re are a normal part of growing up and you can’t stop them from happening. Most boys have wet dreams at some point during puberty, and even sometimes as adults. Nocturnal emission (wet dream) usually happen less as men get older, though.

Nocturnal emissions are most common during teenage and early adult years. However, nocturnal emissions may happen any time after puberty. They may be accompanied by erotic dreams, and the emission may happen without erection. It is possible to wake up during, or to simply sleep through, the ejaculation in what is sometimes called a “sex dream”. Women can also experience orgasms in their sleep.

Chances are that you had a “wet dream” — something that can be embarrassing and confusing, but is completely normal. A wet dream is when a guy ejaculates (or “cums”) while he’s sleeping. During ejaculation, semen (the fluid containing sperm) comes out of the penis and this is what you noticed on your underwear or pajama pants. Wet dreams usually happen during dreams that have sexual images. Sometimes boys or men wake up from a wet dream, but sometimes they sleep through it.

The frequency of nocturnal emissions is highly variable. Some men have experienced large numbers of nocturnal emissions as teenagers, while others have never experienced one. 83 percent of men in the United States will eventually experience nocturnal emissions at some time in their lives ¹. Surveys in non-western countries where masturbation is culturally suppressed show 98 percent or more of the men eventually experience nocturnal emissions ². For males who have experienced nocturnal emissions the mean frequency ranges from 0.36 times per week for single 15 year old males to 0.18 times per week for 40 year old single males. For married males the mean ranges from 0.23 times per week for 19 year old married males to 0.15 times per week for 50 year old married males ³.

Some have the dreams only at a certain age, while others have them throughout their lives following puberty. The frequency that one has nocturnal emissions has not been conclusively linked to one’s frequency of masturbation. A famous sexuality researcher, Alfred Kinsey, found “there may be some correlation between the frequencies of masturbation and the frequencies of nocturnal dreams. In general the males who have the highest frequencies of nocturnal emissions may have somewhat lower rates of masturbation. Some of these males credit the frequent emissions to the fact that they do not masturbate; but it is just as likely that the reverse relationship is true, namely, that they do not masturbate because they have frequent emissions” ⁴. For women the correlation is also short of conclusive; “According to Kinsey’s findings, women who suddenly lost the opportunity for several coital orgasms per week had only a few more orgasms in their sleep per year.”

One factor that can affect the number of nocturnal emissions a person has is whether they take testosterone-based drugs. In a 1998 study, the number of boys reporting nocturnal emissions drastically increased as their testosterone doses were increased, from 17% of subjects with no treatment to 90% of subjects at a high dose ⁵.

During puberty, 13 percent of males experience their first ejaculation as a result of a nocturnal emission ⁶. Kinsey found that males experiencing their first ejaculation through a nocturnal emission were older than those experiencing their first ejaculation by means of masturbation. The study indicates that such a first ejaculation resulting from a nocturnal emission was delayed a year or more from what would have been developmentally possible for such males through physical stimulation ⁷.

Whereas an ejaculation normally terminates an erection, in the case of nocturnal emission, the subject often still has a functional erection afterward.

Involuntary orgasms can occur during waking hours in both sexes, but these are rare ⁸.

Nocturnal emission in females

Regarding nocturnal emission in women, a 1953 study by Kinsey found that 40% of the 5,628 women he interviewed experienced at least one orgasm or “wet dream” during sleep by the time they were 45 years old ⁹. A smaller study published in the Journal of Sex Research in 1986 found that 85% of women who have had experienced orgasms during sleep first did so at a young age — before the age of 21, and some even before they turned 13 ⁹.

In addition, women who have orgasms during sleep usually have them several times a year. Dr. Kinsey and his colleagues defined female nocturnal orgasm as sexual arousal during sleep that awakens one to perceive the experience of orgasm. Girls and women who don’t have orgasms in their sleep, or who don’t know whether or not they’ve had them, are perfectly normal. It may be easier for men to identify their wet dreams because of the “ejaculatory evidence.” Vaginal secretions could be a sign of sexual arousal without orgasm.

Similar studies find that a much higher percentage of boys and men experience wet dreams. This, combined with a greater focus on male sexuality by science and the public in general, are probably two big reasons why we don’t hear very much about women’s nighttime orgasms.

Nocturnal emission treatment

Nocturnal emissions or wet dreams are very common among men and women: studies estimate that up to a whopping 83 percent of men and 37 percent of women have at least one wet dream in their lifetime. While nocturnal emissions or wet dreams do tend to be more frequent in teenage years when hormones are coursing through your body, it’s not atypical for sexually active adults to experience wet dreams, nor is it atypical for teen or young adults to have very few wet dreams.

While having more sex or masturbating more often may help reduce your nocturnal emissions or wet dreams, there’s no guarantee that they’ll stop altogether. If they do continue, you might consider trying to enjoy the experience! Erotic dreams are perfectly normal and healthy, and the orgasms that often accompany them may be a welcome release. If you do find them unpleasant, though, there are a few different strategies you could consider trying for lessening their impact on your life:

• Consider seeing a mental health care provider if they’re causing you anxiety or stress, or seeing a couples counselor if you feel like they’re damaging your relationship with a partner.
• Have open and honest discussions with your partner about wet dreams. She/he may be more understanding than you expect, and it can give you a chance to talk it out with someone you trust.
• Keep a second set of sleeping clothes next to the bed so you can stage a quick change if you find waking up in a little sea o’ semen to be bothersome.
• Check in with your health care provider if you feel like your wet dreams are significantly interfering with your life or quality of sleep, or if you or a partner notices any other sexual behaviors in your sleep.

In the end, what each of you is experiencing — more or fewer wet dreams than expected — is quite normal.

Although purported treatments to help prevent or diminish nocturnal emissions are available in abundance, none are known to have undergone any kind of rigorous clinical experimentation or approval process such as that required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Like the hiccups, there are a huge variety of “home remedies” with no scientific basis. Moreover, because no proven physical harm (beyond the inconvenience of cleaning the semen ejaculate) is caused by the event and it is not symptomatic of any underlying problem, it is generally considered inadvisable to undergo any sort of treatment.

References

1. Kinsey, Alfred C. “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” p. 519
2. Knowledge About Human Reproduction and Experience of Puberty. https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR157/04Chapter04.pdf
3. Kinsey, Alfred C. “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” p. 275
4. Kinsey, Alfred C. “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” p. 511
5. Jordan W. Finkelstein, Elizabeth J. Susman, Vernon M. Chinchilli, M. Rose D’Arcangelo, Susan J. Kunselman, Jacqueline Schwab, Laurence M. Demers, Lynn S. Liben, Howard E. Kulin, Effects of Estrogen or Testosterone on Self-Reported Sexual Responses and Behaviors in Hypogonadal Adolescents, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 83, Issue 7, 1 July 1998, Pages 2281–2285, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.83.7.4961
6. Kinsey, Alfred C. “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” p. 190
7. Kinsey, Alfred C. “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” p. 299
8. The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll. 1909. Translated from German by Eden Paul in 1912. https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/moll/sexuallife/SexualLifeOfTheChild.html
9. Do women have wet dreams, too? https://goaskalice.columbia.edu/answered-questions/do-women-have-wet-dreams-too