Sex Sleeping: How to get away with rape.
In the next chapter of ‘creating a medical condition to absolve people of criminal acts’, society can now add rape, incest and physical abuse to the adage “I could do that in my sleep”.
When I first read about sexsomnia I raised more then a few eyebrows. I only have two eyebrows but the concept was such a blatant removal of responsibility that I felt compelled to walk outside the office and raise the eyebrows of anyone I could fine.
By the end of the day I’d physically raised one hundred and ninety three pairs of eyebrows. When I returned to the office with my blistered fingers my boss asked where the hell I’d been for the last seven hours.
I told him that I’d been sleep eyebrowing and had no recollection of the time spent away from my desk.
I didn’t lose my job so I can only assume sleep eyebrowing is now a genuine medical condition and I can now claim disability payments and raise the eyebrows of anyone I see fit without consequence.
Sexsomnia was used recently as a defense in a Northern Territory court. 48 year old Leonard Andrew Spencer had just recently come out of a marriage and then decided to hop into bed with 21 year old house guest and proceeded to rape her.
His lawyers claimed he was depressed and broken up over the collapse of his marriage and they had a psychiatrist testify that he may or may not have suffered from sex sleep. The verdict?
Innocent.
Now there was some uproar over this decision but it had nothing to do with the absolute horse shit defense of ‘I was asleep at the time’. No, the Australian courts are perfectly happy with the sleep sex defense but what got the government’s knickers in a twist was the fact that Mr. Spencer’s lawyers called the expert witness unannounced.
Rushing to correct this clearly gross abuse of a loophole the NT government passed legislation that prevents the calling up of expert witnesses without prior notice.
So as you can see, as long as you claim sex sleep from the start you’ve really got nothing to worry about as this wonderful precedent will pave the way for ‘not guilty’ sentences for years to come.
Oh and don’t worry females, the sleep sex defense isn’t discriminatory so you can you use it too. Although you might have a harder time doing so as let’s face it, when was the last time a guy woke up to find a girl screwing his brains out while she was asleep. Although now that I think about it, female sleep sex might just shed some light on a few morning-after rape cases.
Curious to see if this condition was more then the byproduct of a few rounds of petrol sniffing in the Australian outback I jumped onto google and found that there are legitimate websites full of information on this terrible ‘disease’.
Sleepsex.org is filled with hilarious anecdotes from bewildered spouses looking for someone to tell them their partners didn’t mean it and perputrators just looking for an excuse to get out of taking responsibility for their actions.
Thankfully there’s a cure for this horrible disease. For every made up condition there’s always a drug company willing to come to the rescue and provide us with miracle drugs to cure us. Sleep expert patient Florence Cardinal recommends the drug clonazepam (Klonopin) for sexsomnia “sufferers”. So if you’re planning on raping a bunch of people and then pulling the sex sleep defense it might be worthwhile having a few bottles of this stuff in the medicine cabinet.
You know, for credibility and all that.
Personally I look forward to this new age of sleep defense. If you can get away with sleep sex why not sleep theft, sleep murder or sleep child abuse? I mean hell even if the crime you choose to commit isn’t covered by the sleep-defense you could always just claim you were not really present during your time in court and push for a sleep trial. That’s got to be worth a shot.
Personally I plan to make great use of the sleep defense. From now on anytime somebody says something I don’t agree with instead of getting into a messy argument about why I’ll just claim to have not heard due to my sleep-work or sleep-relationship relationship illness, depending on who it is I’m disagreeing with at the time.
In fact maybe I’m asleep now and this is all just a sleep blog that I’m going to one day discover and have no recollection of having ever contributed to.
The possibilities are endless.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm Van(Quote)
For the love of all things holy, when will people… um… Oh, I know, see through the BS and simply call things for what they are?
Really.
When I hear stories like this I’m shocked that people make the claim. I’m even MORE shocked that others believe/accept it as a real condition.
As for the Clonazepam use to combat the “illness”… well, it seems that Clonazepam is the catch all for things these days. You have Anxiety… how about restless legs… or now Sex Sleeping. Throw Clonazepam at it.
May 11th, 2009 at 10:51 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
All hail our new overlord Clonazepam!
July 30th, 2010 at 9:40 am Anonymous(Quote)
I’m sorry but you have absolutely NO IDEA what you’re talking about. I have been taking Zolpidem (ambien) for a little while now and as you might know it can cause some crazy sleepwalking. I actually mildly harrassed my mother last night but went back to my own bed after laying in hers for about 6 hours.
I was shocked to find out when she told me the next morning. Ofcourse people will abuse this disease, haven’t they always? Any mental disorder has the potentional to be exploited.
But if people can drive a car in their sleep, can make a dinner in their sleep or climb a ladder. Then why wouldn’t they be able to have sex in their sleep? It’s more natural than climbing ladders or driving a car and is one of the most primitive acts known to complex organisms as us.
Just in case you didn’t know, sleep theft has been reported.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:57 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
If you’re taking medication that is making you walk around harassing your mother then you shouldn’t be taking it at home in an unsupervised environment. The last thing we want is for you to be having sleep sex with your mother.
Driving a car, making dinner and climbing a ladder are passive in nature. Raping someone in your sleep while they scream, protest and hit you is another matter entirely.
Unless you’d taken a wheelbarrow of horse tranquilisers how do you not wake up from that? And if you had taken a wheelbarrow full of horse tranquilisers it then begs the question what are you doing sleep walking around raping people?
January 15th, 2011 at 9:55 am You're so wrong(Quote)
There is a distinct difference between being awake and asleep, and a brain scan during sleep can show this. People have been seen (under examination in sleep clinics) to sleep walk, talk, write, eat, and have sex.
Recently I watched a show dealing with it, and a husband was having sex with his wife in his sleep, and had been for decades. She would either put up with it, or sleep in another room.
Whilst there are going to be people that abuse and exploit the idea and definition, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Look at the story of Kenneth Ecott. An RAF man in London that raped a girl a 15yr old at a party. He woke up when she screamed. He confessed straight away (to her family no less) and his girlfriend said she would be fondled by him during sleep.
Of course it’s horrible for the victim, but the law takes intent very much into consideration.
September 12th, 2011 at 6:30 am Grow up(Quote)
Hello all,
I have diagnosed sexsomnia. Masturbation and I initiating sex are both symptoms of this illness. It is not a psychological illness but a neurological disorder. It is embarrasing and quite frightening and leaves me feeling ashamed and guilty.
Thankfully, with specialist treatment, my symptoms have lessened significantly. Believe me when I tell you that this a very real illness and as we can see, has very real consequences if not correctly diagnosed and treated.
I am extremely lucky to have such a loving and understanding wife, without whom I wouldn’t have known about the ilness in the first place, let alone sought treatment.
Sleep science is just that – based on science and technology. If you’re too narrow minded to consider that yes, people can actually masturbate and have sex whilst asleep and this is demonstrable by empirical evidence, then you are only perpetuating the stigma which prevents people seeking treatment through fear and shame. When this occurs, tragedies where people have suffered sexual assault as a result will occur.
For the record, I am a tertiary educated, high-income earning, professional and fit male in his late 20s. Open your mind and grow up.
September 13th, 2011 at 2:38 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
@Grow up
Nah you don’t. You just can’t keep your hands to yourself and quite obviously lack self control.
Good!
What treatment was this, drugs or therapy?
And gullible. Ewww, poor her!
Oh please, don’t even try to pull the ‘accept us or you’re making us rape people’ line. Ultimately your behaviour is your responsibility and raping people ‘in your sleep’ is just a cop out, along with most of the other “mental illness” defenses.
If this sort of nonsense gains widespread acceptance you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll join the ranks of other mental illnesses as the instant excuse everytime someone rapes someone in a bed.
‘so you’re telling me you were entirely asleep when you had a shower, watched some tv, ate dinner, left your house, went to a bar, left the bar, broke into someone’s house, raped them, came home and went to bed….?
‘uh yeah… sure. I have *psst what’s it called again?* uh… sex sleeping disorderitisomiapox. Yeah.’
‘well why didn’t you say so! Case dismissed, and I’m ruling that the “victim” pay costs for wasting everybody’s time. Can’t people just accept sex sleeping already?!’
*later that day*
‘Yeah so we wanna know WHAT ON EARTH you were thinking when you handed down that ruling earlier today?! Have you gone mad?!’
‘…so uh… um….
‘…’
‘….have you fellows heard of ‘judgement sleeping’…?
Now where have I heard that before…?
‘open your mind man… it’s not our fault we were born this way, it’s a lifestyle choice man… open your mind and taste the rainbow!’
Ah it’s the same sort of nonsense pedos, beastiality fans and other social degenerates use to excuse their behaviour.
Sorry, not buying it.
September 22nd, 2011 at 12:35 pm Anoniemous(Quote)
Are you saying that this guy is willfully and surreptitiously raping his wife? What the hell is wrong with you?
September 22nd, 2011 at 12:38 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Not like it hasn’t happened before…
‘hey darls I’m horny, how about some…?’
‘omg leave me alone I’m sleeping’
‘…fine’
(20 minutes later)
*bambambam*
‘omg what are you doing?’
‘huh what… ohshit you’re awa-uh, I mean hgngnnnng what? Sorry I was sleep-OMG WHAT AM I DOING I’M SO SORRY!’
‘aw poor you… sex sleeping again?’
‘yes, it’s terrible this disease I have’
‘ah well, not your fault. Anyway you better finish up.’
‘Hehe, sucke-… ‘
‘-what?’
‘uh, I mean I love you so much, you’re so understanding!’
September 22nd, 2011 at 1:00 pm Anoniemous(Quote)
The bloke above admitted to a condition (and subsequent treatment) to which you basically called him a rapist. You then tell me it’s happened before? You know people who’ve essentially raped their significant other?
Journal article on Sexsomnia: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19765888
Apparently non-passive acts CAN happen during sleep.
September 22nd, 2011 at 2:24 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Not personally no. But come now, you’re gunna tell me a wife or husband has never been raped before?
I’m not saying they can’t, but what’s more plausible, some horny guy doing it with his wife anyway because she’s too tired to put out or a rare sleeping disorder?
The two examples cited in that study (out of a reported handful) both appear to be drugfucked subjects in their youth. Hardly sounds like a naturally occuring disease to me!
If this conidition gains widespread acceptant rapists the world over are going to have a field day with our legal systems.
September 22nd, 2011 at 3:13 pm Anoniemous(Quote)
Of course husbands/wives rape each other. No doubt about it.
A rare sleeping disorder is definitely unlikely. But still posible. A jury decided this man was not guilty. Apparently they believed it more plausible that he was asleep.
I would imagine there are people who are not drugfucked and still have this condition (perhaps induced by prescription meds, or they just have it). But to see anyone imprisoned for something unintentional no matter house horrible would be just as inhuman as the act itself.
If we ran the world according to your logic we’d be locking up drivers who accidentally hit pedestrians.
September 22nd, 2011 at 3:19 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
But how do you prove a case of something like this? Y’know, beyond just saying you have it.
If the claimed to be sleeping at the time then hell yeah they deserve to be locked up.
September 22nd, 2011 at 3:29 pm Anoniemous(Quote)
Thats a good question.
I suppose if the person had been trying to seek treatment before they raped someone, that might help their cause. Other than that, I’d be very surprised if any jury wasn’t deeply skeptical of a sexsomnia claim. This guy must have had very good evidence to back his claims up.
Honestly though, I dont know how you’d go about proving that sort of thing.
A sleepy driver is a neglegent driver. A sleepy rapist is an unwilling rapist.
September 22nd, 2011 at 3:34 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Catch-22, unless you get lucky and your partner wasn’t asleep at the time and realises you allegedly are.
That’s an assumption that can’t be proven. For all we know they’re loving it.
September 22nd, 2011 at 4:06 pm Anoniemous(Quote)
For all we know the rapee is loving it. That can’t be proven either.
September 22nd, 2011 at 4:09 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
True, which is why I brought it up in reference to your blanket ‘a sleepy rapist is an unwilling rapist‘ assumption.
September 22nd, 2011 at 4:14 pm Anoniemous(Quote)
Fair enough. I’ve got nothing else to add really…
It was nice talking to you
September 22nd, 2011 at 4:16 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
No worries, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
September 23rd, 2011 at 12:36 am blobOfNeurons(Quote)
Yes, why not?