Vagina owners can also experience wet dreams, or sleep orgasms.
Wet dreams. You’ve heard about them. Maybe you’ve even had one or two yourself. And if you’ve seen any coming-of-age movie from the 1990s, you know that teenagers can’t get away from them.
But do you know what causes wet dreams? Or why you may have a few as an adult?
There’s a lot to know about wet dreams, some of which might surprise you. Keep reading to learn more.
Simply put, a wet dream is when you ejaculate or secrete vaginal fluids during sleep. FYI, most people have them and they’re a perfectly healthy part of sleep.
“Wet dream” is a bit of a misnomer, though, because while a sex dream can lead to some sleepy-time splooge, most happen without a clear cause.
Wet dreams happen during REM sleep when your breathing and heart rates increase, increasing blood flow throughout the body, including your genitals. The increased blood flow makes your genitals hypersensitive to stimulation of any kind.
You may wake up during a wet dream or sleep through it and only realize you had one when you wake up wet down below.
Yup. “Wet dream,” “sleep orgasm,” and “nocturnal emission” all mean the same thing. In fact, “nocturnal emission” is the formal name for ejaculating when you sleep.
So, if you hear people talking about nocturnal emissions or sleep orgasms, remember they’re talking about wet dreams.
Not at all. Wet dreams are more common during your teenage years because your body is going through some major hormonal changes that affect your sexual maturity.
But adults can have erotic dreams, too — especially if they’re sexually active.
That said, sleep orgasms do happen more infrequently as you get older. That’s because, unlike during puberty, your hormone levels aren’t out of control.
Absolutely! Though the abundance of research and literature out there on wet dreams may make it seem as if only teenage penis owners have them.
Research into wet dreams in people with vaginas is seriously lacking, but what is available confirms that it’s not just penis owners enjoying wet dreams. As a matter of fact, research suggests that most vagina owners have a sleep orgasm before they turn 21.
Along with the lack of research, the lack of obvious physical evidence of a wet dream likely also contributes to the notion that people with penises are more likely to have them.
In other words, a load of semen makes a wet dream easier to recognize than some vaginal wetness might.
Who’s to say?
Wet dreams tend to be more frequent around puberty thanks to raging hormones and happen less frequently the older you get as your hormones stabilize. That said, everyone’s different and the frequency of wet dreams can vary significantly from one person to another.
Hormonal shifts happen throughout life for various reasons and can impact how often you have wet dreams.
Experiencing more sexual stimulation before bed — like watching porn for instance — can also contribute to more wet dreams. So can going long periods without sex or masturbation. One study even linked watching TV to more wet dreams!
Semen leakage is another possibility for people with penises. If you’re experiencing an involuntary leakage of semen at night or at other times in the day, it could indicate an underlying prostate condition or be a side effect of a medication you’re taking.
If you’re worried that you’re having too many wet dreams, consider reaching out to a doctor or other healthcare professional to rule out any medical causes that may be contributing to them. If nothing is found, and you’re still concerned, your clinician may refer you to a counselor.
A therapist may help you get to the root of your dreams — what they mean and why you seem to have them all the time.
Wet dreams are a healthy and natural part of sleep and don’t typically require you do anything… other than maybe reach for a tissue or wipe!
If your wet dreams are impacting your ability to sleep or function, or are affecting your mental health, reach out to a healthcare professional for advice.
Nope. Just like not every sex act ends in orgasm, not every wet dream will finish with one. And on the flipside, having an orgasm doesn’t always result in ejaculation or wetness.
Wet dreams can happen with or without orgasm. You don’t need an orgasm to experience some semen leakage or vaginal wetness.
Not necessarily. Sex dreams don’t always make you orgasm during your sleep. And you don’t always have a sleep orgasm because of a sex dream.
Thanks to that genital hypersensitivity that occurs during REM sleep, the mere brush of your bedsheets against your body can be enough to trigger it.
Sexy thoughts before bed, a lack of sexual activity and orgasm otherwise and a higher level of sex hormones may play a role, too.
First things first: It’s not unusual to experience difficulty with orgasm. The ability to orgasm is different for everybody, and a lot of people have difficulty climaxing.
This can be the result of several things, many of which may not affect you the same way when you’re asleep, such as:
- chronic pain and other physical conditions
- mental health conditions
- previous sexual trauma
- difficulties within a romantic or sexual relationship
- sexual repression
- being insufficiently aroused
- body image concerns
- inhibitions
During sleep, your body and mind are relaxed and your guard is down. Inhibitions around your body and sex aren’t as likely to affect your arousal. Plus, you may get turned on by things in your dream that you’re not even aware yet are turn-ons for you.
The exciting news is that if you’re able to orgasm in your sleep and want to explore having an O when you’re awake, your body IS physically capable. It may just be a matter of exploring your fantasies and experimenting to find out what feels good for you.
Absolutely. Not everyone will have a wet dream. Some people may have a few, while others may have a lot.
Then there are people who have wet dreams as teenagers, but not as adults. Dreams are super personal, individual experiences that are different for everyone.
Maybe. Research suggests that sleeping in the prone position — meaning on your stomach — could cause you to have sexual or lustful dreams.
Why this link exists is unclear, though. But if you want to test the theory, lay on your belly in bed before you go to sleep.
No, not really. Sure, some dream experts suggest you may be able to control your dreams.
How so? Well, according to research, you may be able influence your dreamland narrative. This is called lucid dreaming and there are techniques that may help you do it.
Just keep in mind that trying these tactics doesn’t mean you’ll actually control your dreams successfully. There’s no way to guarantee that you can really prevent a wet dream.
If nothing else, there’s one important thing to remember: Wet dreams are completely natural. Not everyone will have a wet dream, but there’s certainly nothing wrong if you do.
Just know that sleep orgasms, like all other orgasms, are super individual. There’s no right or wrong way to have one — or two or three or four.
Annamarya Scaccia is an award-winning freelance journalist who reports on public health and social justice issues. Like any native New Yorker, she drinks too much coffee and has strong opinions about the Yankees.