Somnophilia, the excitement of seeing someone sleep

Somnophilia refers to people who excite themselves when they establish contact with other people who sleep.

There are major paraphilias, which appear in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM), and minor paraphilias that also appear in said manual.

Paraphilias

Paraphilias consist of Frequent and intense presence of sexual behaviors or fantasies that imply inanimate objects, suffering, humiliation or others. Generally, they cause anguish or problems in the daily functioning of people, since they can affect others.

According to the DSM-IV, paraphilias are divided into seniors and minors. Among the major are exhibitionism, fetishism, smearing, masochism, pedophilia, sadism, transvestism and voyeurism.

In the case of somnophilia, this paraphilia appears listed among minor paraphilias and consists in the interest in having sex with unconscious people. 

In the case of somnophilia, excitement and orgasm occurs through caresses and sexual contact with the other person who is sleeping.

The fantasies of people with this paraphilia are with sleeping people who demonstrate little or no resistance to physical contact when they sleep.

This type of paraphilias usually becomes very dangerous, because there are those who use drugs or drug use to induce the dream of the other person and thus have greater control.

Today, many feminist movements are also emphasizing the fact that No person should touch a woman while sleeping, since this consider it as a type of sexual assault.

Somnophilia

The amount of paraphilias that exist can become diverse and can focus on situations, objects, animals, children or adults who do not consent.

In these cases, the person's sexual excitement depends on the presence of the focus on which it is concentrated and, once the sexual arousal patterns have established -which usually occurs in puberty -, these usually endure in life adult.

In the case of healthy adults, there is always possible that there are sexual fantasies and these are not harmful as long as there is consent between them and integrate into the relationship of affection and love.

However, when sexual behaviors generate damage, they cause anguish or alter the ability to function in everyday activities, then they are considered as a paraphilical disorder.

The discomfort can also be accompanied by a feeling of guilt, for desire or do something that is not socially acceptable.

In many people, paraphilic disorder makes them difficult to maintain a healthy and affectionate relationship with another person, since, couples of those who suffer from these disorders can feel as if they were objects or had no importance in the relationship.

Therefore, it is considered that paraphilias can be a "dysfunction" for those who suffer from it, in the sense that it causes an emotional and personal conflict, or that it suffers the risk of causing personal or social damage as a consequence of their performance.

According to the doctor in Psychology, M Muse, in his study on the evaluation and treatment of paraphilic disorders, the vast majority of paraphilias are manifested in puberty, so it is considered that in that period there is a “window of opportunity ”, Through which the conditioning of sexual stimuli is especially conducive.

As a curious fact, in the year 1986, the psychologist and sexologist John Money described somnophilia as a paraphilia of the predator and merodeter type, in which erotic, excitement and the ease or achievement of orgasm respond to intrude and awaken a stranger with caresses, including oral sex, without strength or violence.

Nevertheless, In 1972, psychologists Víctor Calef and Edward Weinshel had already described the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, To refer to what is now known as somnophilia, that is, the excitation that depends or increases before the presence of the sleeping person.

The fantasies of those who have this type of paraphilia also include the situation of eliminating theite of the person who sleeps, while others admit that it is a fascination for sleeping and helpless women to those who see as easy victims. However, the latter case does more similarity with a fantasy of rape than with somnophilia as is classically known.

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Bibliography

• Muse, m., & Frigola, G. (2003). The evaluation and treatment of paraphilic disorders. Psychosomatic Medicine Notebooks and Liaison Psychiatry, 65(1), 55-65.
• Oeverland, s. (2015). Somnophilia and The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome-The Unknown Patterns of Aroual. Retrieved May, 6, 2017.
• Sarmiento Gavilanes, S. D., & Trelles Urgiles, F. TO. (2019). Psychological factors associated with paraphilic behaviors(Bachelor's ahesis, University of Azuay).
• Romi, j. C. (2004). Nomenclature of sexual manifestations. Alcmeon, eleven(2), 101-126.