The illness, which causes sufferers to try to have sex in their sleep, can threaten relationships and even land them in jail
“THE engine is running, but there’s no driver behind the wheel,” was how one defence lawyer described it.
But he wasn’t talking about an out-of-control car or a drunk driver.
He was mounting a defence in a rape trial, telling the court his client may have had sex with the woman he was accused of sexually assaulting, but he had no control over it, and no memory of it.
Sexsomnia may be a term that incites a schoolboy snigger, but for sufferers, and those close to them, it is a serious condition that can threaten relationships, and even land them in jail.
But increasingly, it’s being used as a defence in rape cases worldwide.
In a headline-grabbing case late last year, Lawrence Barilli was cleared of raping his partner because he was suffering from sexsomnia.
His wife told the high court in Glasgow she would “wake up with him having sex with me ... I did not really not know what to think”.
Experts say sexsomnia is a kind of “parasomnia” – an abnormal behaviour which is exhibited while someone is in a deep sleep.
It’s like sleepwalking, and night terrors, in that those who do it typically can’t remember their actions.
During an episode, someone with sexsomnia might touch themselves while asleep, or try to have sex with someone near them.
There are reports the person is more uninhibited and sexually insistent than when they are when awake.
And it’s not great sex. More automated and robotic, experts say.
Or as Barilla’s wife said: “It was silent throughout ... I didn’t like it.”
One woman recalled two incidents with a man who unknowingly had sexsomnia (and thus didn’t remember either encounter).
She told that one night he “began thrusting at her groin in a crude, unsensual kind of way”.
During a later episode, he tried to have sex with her through her underwear.
She considered leaving him, but then started asking some questions, genuinely puzzled by the out-of-character behaviour.
He told her he had no memory of it and was devastated that he had upset and hurt her.
A sleep clinic ultimately revealed he had sexsomnia.
The condition is extremely rare, with Victoria University associate professor Gerald Kennedy revealing that he has “only seen four or possibly five genuine cases” in 20 years of conducting sleep clinics.
And it is even rarer in women, with a 2003 Toronto Western Hospital study finding 11 per cent of its male sleep-centre patients experienced sexsomnia, compared to four per cent of female patients.
The idea that sexsomniacs are sleepwalking their way, zombie-like, to have their way is far-fetched.
Apparently, it’s all about proximity.
Prof Kennedy said: “It’s not likely that the person will wander out of their bed to have sex.
“It’s more likely that when they’re lying in bed with somebody they’ll have a sexsomnia episode and have sex in their sleep.”
While the cause of sexsomnia is still unknown, and the episodes are considered random, researchers think that people are triggered into them when there’s a disruption in the brain as it moves between deep sleep cycles.
It’s also thought sleep deprivation, alcohol consumption, or sleeping pills like Ambien increase someone’s likelihood of experiencing sexsomnia.
Treatments can include avoiding such trigger, as well as medication to improve sleep, counselling.
A version of this story originally appeared on .
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