November 26, 2004
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15:46 15 October 04
NewScientist.com news service
Sleep medicine experts have successfully treated a rare case of a woman having sex with strangers while sleepwalking.
The behaviour had disrupted the lives of the woman and her partner. At night while asleep, the middle-aged sleepwalker left her house and had sexual intercourse with strangers. The behaviour continued for several months and the woman had no memory of her nocturnal activities.
Circumstantial evidence, such as condoms found scattered around the house, alerted the couple to the problem. On one occasion, her partner awoke to find her missing, went searching for her and found her engaged in the sex act.
She stopped her night-time excursions after psychiatric counselling.
In 1987, Ken Parks, drove 23 kilometres from his home in Pickering, Ontario, to his in-laws house, where he strangled his father-in-law unconscious, and stabbed his mother-in-law to death. He was acquitted of murder because he was sleepwalking at the time.
Comments (2)
Sex can be a passive act for a female, but murder is a whole different matter!
Well, I heard of a man strangling his wife while sleepwaking, while pushing back what he thought was some nightmarish creature. Wouldn’t want to be associated with these people.