It wasn't just a dream... was it?

May 19, 2008 11:35 AM

Is it possible for a woman to have an orgasm while she's asleep?

About two weeks ago, I had a dream that I was masturbating, and had a great, amazing, earth shattering orgasm. I have no problem having orgasms either in sex with a partner or masturbation, but I don't have earth shattering ones often. I woke up for a second after the dream, and my girly bits were sore and swollen. I actually forgot about it until a few days ago, when I masturbated (awake) which made me remember the "dream." I was quite groggy when I woke after this dream, but do distinctly remember feeling as I do after having an orgasm, normally.

I know males have been known to experience wet dreams, and certainly know people can have dreams of orgasming - but is it possible for a woman to actually have an orgasm completely when she's asleep? How does this work? Has anyone ever experienced this?

posted by anonymous to science & nature (17 comments total)

Yes, this is mentioned Kinsey report.
posted by phrontist at 11:37 AM on May 19, 2008

Yes, this is normal. It's also normal to not have them. I've always though it lent some weight to the "sex is (or can be) mostly mental" assertion.

In 1953, Alfred Kinsey, Ph.D., the famous sexuality researcher, found that nearly 40 percent of the 5,628 women he interviewed experienced at least one nocturnal orgasm (orgasms during sleep), or "wet dream," by the time they were forty-five years old. A smaller study published in the Journal of Sex Research in 1986 found that 85 percent of the women who had experienced nocturnal orgasms had done so by the age of twenty-one... some even before they turned thirteen. 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.

posted by jessamyn at 11:38 AM on May 19, 2008

Some of the best things in my life have happened while I was asleep. To answer your question, yes.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:38 AM on May 19, 2008

Yes! My very first one was while I was dreaming....awwwww!
posted by tristeza at 11:39 AM on May 19, 2008

Yes this is possible...lets just say that I hear the event happening and it kinda woke me up....
posted by The1andonly at 12:12 PM on May 19, 2008

From personal experience, it is very possible.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:20 PM on May 19, 2008

Yes, absolutely. This happens to me quite often. There have also been certain medications that increased their frequency to about one or two a night.
posted by inconsequentialist at 12:23 PM on May 19, 2008

Ooh, inconsequentialist, dare I ask "what meds"?
posted by Arthur Dent at 1:38 PM on May 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

I believe it was a translucent, yellow softgel cap type medication that I took while I had the flu/sinus infection several years ago. I may have been on other medication as well at the time but this is the one I remember having the nice side effect.

Also, Anonymous, now that you've been aware of this happening at least once, there might be times during lucid or vivid dreams that you can manipulate the situation as it were.
posted by inconsequentialist at 1:57 PM on May 19, 2008

Yes, I've had more than one while asleep. They're awesome.
posted by meerkatty at 3:58 PM on May 19, 2008

yes, Yes, YES!

wait, what was the question?

I have had an orgasm while dreaming about sex. I woke up in the middle of a whopper. the brain is an amazing organ - I was not physically aroused at all.
posted by killy willy at 4:01 PM on May 19, 2008

Yes, they happen to me all the time. It feels much different from a waking orgasm, and I'm not sure why I can't orgasm in the same way when I'm awake. Anyway, it's pretty cool, huh?
posted by folara at 4:05 PM on May 19, 2008

the brain is an amazing organ - I was not physically aroused at all.

From a personal standpoint, that was the part that I found the most awesome and yet sort of confusing about the whole thing when it's happened to me. If I wake up while having one of those dreams (and I have them from time to time, they're not unusual in my sleep world, so they're recognizeable) I'm not aroused at all physically at the point when I wake up. It's just strange to get used to, mind all hot and bothered, body not. If I stay asleep then yeah it's totally mind-blowing in a very different way than waking life, though I've also woken up pretty much in the middle, enough to know that it's not happening all in my head at least.
posted by jessamyn at 4:19 PM on May 19, 2008

I think the sleeping brain can access all sorts of bits that are normally closed. I've had emotional experiences in dreams that eclipse anything in real life, and I put it down to the brain just running wild over the control panel, and occasionally pressing the big red O button.
posted by tomble at 4:43 PM on May 19, 2008 [3 favorites]

Yeah, it definitely happens.
posted by limeonaire at 5:28 PM on May 19, 2008

Yeh, I've had it once. It woke me up. It was pretty damn awesome - all the payoff with none of the work!
posted by saturnine at 12:51 PM on May 20, 2008

tomble, that's an AWESOME analogy.

And yes, it definitely happens. Some of the best orgasms I've ever had were when I was sleeping. The only time I've ever had a multiple, it was during a dream. I wish I could have these girl versions of wet dreams EVERY night.
posted by keep it under cover at 2:21 AM on March 17