Nocturnal emission

A nocturnal emission is an ejaculation of semen experienced during sleep. It is also called a "wet dream", an involuntary orgasm, or simply an orgasm during sleep.

Nocturnal emissions are most common during teenage and early adult years. However, nocturnal emissions may happen any time after puberty. They may or may not be accompanied by erotic dreams. It is possible to wake up during the ejaculation, or to just stay asleep during the ejaculation.

Causes

The source of nocturnal emissions is not known. A common theory, tacitly assumed by many researchers, is that they are the direct result of the stimulation caused by either erotic dreams or memories of waking sexual activities.^* For this reason the term wet dream is also used figuratively for something very pleasurable but often imagined or hoped for. However, there has been little experimental evidence to support this theory, and many men claim to have had nocturnal emissions without accompanying erotic dreams.

Another common theory is that wet dreams are the way the body disposes of "built-up" semen, to make room for more. However, the body does not in fact need to do this, as is evident from the many men who ejaculate only on rare occasions and from studies in which there was no significant difference observed in wet dream frequency between men who ejaculated frequently while awake and those who never did. According to the Singapore Science Centre, sperm cells "degenerate and are reabsorbed (broken down and absorbed by the body) in the seminiferous tubules if they are not ejaculated. [The occurrence of wet dreams is not so closely related to the absence of other sexual outlets as was once thought." Singapore Science Centre. ScienceNet - Life Sciences - Genetics/Reproduction. Question No. 18967. Note that although mostly accurate, this response contains unsupported statements about wet dreams being caused by sexual dreams or physical stimulation.

Frequency

The frequency of nocturnal emissions is highly variable. Some men have experienced large numbers of nocturnal emissions as teenagers, while some men have never experienced one in their lives. Ultimately about 83 percent of men in the United States eventually experience nocturnal emissions at some time in their lives.Kinsy, Alfred C. "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" p. 519 Surveys in non-western countries where masturbation is culturally suppressed show 98 percent or more of the men eventually experience nocturnal emissions. Badan Pusat Statistik "Indonesia Young Adult Reproductive Health Survey 2002-2004" p. 27 ^* For males that have experienced nocturnal emissions the mean frequency ranges from 0.36 times per week for single 15 year old males to 0.18 times per week for 40 year old single males. For married males the mean ranges from 0.23 times per week for 19 year old married males to 0.15 times per week for 50 year old married males.Kinsey, Alfred; p. 275.

Men who experience wet dreams more (or less) frequently than others usually do not have any sort of disease or problem. Some have them only at a certain age, while others have them throughout their lives following puberty. The frequency that one has nocturnal emissions has not been conclusively linked to one's frequency of masturbation. Widely-known sex researcher Alfred Kinsey found "There may be some correlation between the frequencies of masturbation and the frequencies of nocturnal dreams. In general the males who have the highest frequencies of nocturnal emissions may have somewhat lower rates of masturbation. Some of these males credit the frequent emissions to the fact that they do not masturbate; but it is just as likely that the reverse relationship is true, namely, that they do not masturbate beause they have frequent emissions."Kinsey, Alfred; p. 511. For women the correlation is also short of conclusive "According to Kinsey's findings, women who suddenly lost the opportunity for several coital orgasms per week had only a few more orgasms in their sleep per year." ^*

One factor that can affect the number of nocturnal emissions a person has is whether they take testosterone-based drugs. In a 1998 study, the number of boys reporting nocturnal emissions drastically increased as their testosterone doses were increased, from 17% of subjects with no treatment to 90% of subjects at a high dose.^*

During puberty, 13 percent of males experience their first ejaculation as a result of a nocturnal emission.Kinsey, Alfred; p. 190 Kinsey found that males experiencing their first ejaculation through a nocturnal emission were older than those experiencing their first ejaculation by means of masturbation. The study indicates that such a first ejaculation resulting from a nocturnal emission was delayed a year or more from what would have been developmentally possible for such males through physical stimulation.Kinsey; Alfred, p. 299

Whereas an ejaculation normally terminates an erection, in the case of nocturnal emission, the subject often still has a functional erection afterward.

Although purported treatments to help prevent or diminish nocturnal emissions are available in abundance, none are known to have undergone any kind of rigorous experimentation or approval process such as that required by the Food and Drug Administration. Like the hiccups, there are a huge variety of "home remedies" with no scientific basis. Moreover, because no physical harm is caused by the act and it is not symptomatic of any underlying problem, it is generally considered unadvisable to undergo any sort of treatment except in cases of severe psychological trauma.

Involuntary orgasms can, more rarely, occur during waking hours in women as well as men. The German word Pollution (= Samenerguß), which does not have the same meaning as the English word "pollution", describes all these involuntary orgasms collectively.Albert Moll. The Sexual Life of the Child. 1909. Translated from German by Eden Paul in 1912.

Spermatorrhoea

In the 18th and 19th century, if a patient had involuntary orgasms frequently or released more semen than is typical, then he was diagnosed with a disease called spermatorrhoea or seminal weakness. A variety of drugs and other treatments, including circumcision and castration, were advised to treat this "disease", which was in reality completely harmless biologically.Ornella Moscuci. Male masturbation and the offending prepuce. Excerpt from "Sexualities in Victorian Britain." Mirror 1.William Acton. "Victorian London - Disease - Spermatorrhoea". From Prostitution, considered in its Moral, Social, and Sanitary Aspects. 2nd edition, 1870. Compiled in Lee Jackson's The Victorian Dictionary. Some modern doctors, especially herb healers, continue to diagnose and advise treatments for cases of spermatorrhoea, but as noted above these treatments are neither validated by thorough experimentation nor even generally necessary.

In other cultures

A recent study by Moazzam Ali et al. showed that many adolescents living in relatively isolated communities in Pakistan had developed strong convictions that nocturnal emission is a dangerous disease:

"considered night emissions a major sex related disease in the adolescent years. A few shared experiences where they had borrowed or even stolen money from home to get prolonged and expensive treatment from traditional healers for night emissions and masturbation".Moazzam Ali, Mohammad Ayaz Bhatti1, and Hiroshi Ushijima. Reproductive Health Needs of Adolescent Males in Rural Pakistan: An Exploratory Study. Tohoku J Exp Med 204:17-35. 2004. [http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/PAKISTAN.HTM

Religious views

Christianity

Unlike masturbation, which most orthodox Christians believe to be sinful, Saint Augustine held that nocturnal emissions did not pollute the conscience of an individual and were not voluntary carnal acts and were therefore not to be considered a sin. Augustine did, however, pray that he may be released from the "glue of lust" and thus recommended the beseechment of God's assistance in clearing one's soul of all such carnal affections.

On the other hand, some parts of the Bible refer directly to nocturnal emission in a negative light, calling it "impure" and "unclean" and describing it not unlike a highly contagious disease that can only be cured by an elaborate ceremony. Note, however, that the biblical Hebrew term tameh, often translated as impure, has no negative connotation in Hebrew. The word is used to descibe many things which occur on a natural cycle, but are considered non-holy. For example:

"When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing. If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp."

— Deuteronomy 23:9-11 English Standard Version

"1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.

3 And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness.

4 Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.

5 And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

6 And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

7 And whoever touches the body of the one with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

8 And if the one with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

9 And any saddle on which the one with the discharge rides shall be unclean.

10 And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening. And whoever carries such things shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

11 Anyone whom the one with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

12 And an earthenware vessel that the one with the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.

13 And when the one with a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes. And he shall bathe his body in fresh water and shall be clean.

14 And on the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons and come before the Lord to the entrance of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest.

15 And the priest shall use them, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge.

16 If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening.

17 And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.

18 If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening."

— Leviticus 15:1-18 English Standard Version

Some Christians have taken this as sufficient evidence to call nocturnal emission a sin. However, the Deuteronomy quote is somewhat out of context, and Leviticus goes on to make similar statements about menstruation. A modern theory is that these clauses were added to encourage good hygiene and help prevent real disease; indeed, if the person having the discharge were carrying a contagious disease, much of the above is good advice for effectively quarantining it. It's also possible that some of the above is referring to not a discharge of semen but of blood or other substance indicating disease. Even the phrase "nocturnal emission" may be a mistranslation of a more dangerous type of emission. Saint Augustine interprets the references to the uncleanliness of discharge of seed (and menstruation) in Leviticus as symbolising disorder and unruliness as opposed to the seed forming a human being through conception which symbolises the form and structure of a just life.

In fact, the Bible never refers specifically to a nocturnal emission as being unclean, but rather any seminal emission. Even a man who has normal intercourse with his wife is considered unclean since he is now "emptier" of a life force he once contained, and he too is required to bathe in a mikveh and he becomes pure after the sun has set.

Other

In medieval western occultism, nocturnal emissions were believed to be caused by succubus' coupling with the individual at night, which was associated too with night terrors.

References

Orgasm

External links

The Wet Dream Forum A forum supporting discussion of wet dreams with a goal of understanding how they can be initiated. (Note that many of the theories on this site are only substantiated by anecdotal evidence and could be supported, disproven or altered by future scientific research.)

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Nocturnal emission