What is Somnophilia?

Also called sleeping princess syndrome (really) somnophilia is when a person gets really turned on sexually when they see sleeping people or  folks in a coma.  The turn on apparently comes from the persons total passivity so that they are in total control. Apparently the sex partner still has to be warm or that would be necrophilia.  It appears in 7.6% of the population, in men more often than women, notes The Book of Kink: Sex Beyond the Missionary (Penguin; 2011.)

This explains why some guys get more turned on from sex dolls than they do actual live women.  According to the book The Sex Doll: A History (McFarland; 2010) by Anthony Ferguson, somnophilia often starts when a young child has "covert sex with a sleeping sibling".  Seriously?  How soundly do kids sleep?  I never slept like that.  The sound of the radiator valiantly trying to work was enough to wake me up when I was a kid.  I think getting poked in the privates would have me leap straight out of bed and claw the ceiling.

Another theory as to the cause of somnophilia is that the person has a desire to crawl back inside the womb.  Uh-huh.  That idea was from Sexual Deviance: Second Edition (2012).  Personally, I think the kick must be in having guilt-free sex.  If the person's asleep, then they do not know that sex occurred.  It's sort of the sexual equivalent of having your cake and eating it, too.

Maybe I should have used another metaphor there. 

Sadly, somnophilia is thought to inspire some men to commit date rape. One usual case happened to Naomi Hampson, who had been raped as she slept by her live-in boyfriend.  That fellow would sedate Hampson and then do whatever he wanted.  She was drugged so thoroughly that she would wake up naked (sometimes with her nails painted) and have no memory of what happened.  This happened for two years.  She then accidentally found evidence of her boyfriend's nocturnal assaults while she was on his computer.  He couldn't help but take some snaps of his acts and download them onto his hard drive.

Another UK predator, Robert Fryer, dubbed a "sleep fetishist" by the Daily Mail, spiked the drinks of his dates, then stripped them, posed them in obscene ways and (of course) took plenty of pictures so the police would have no problem in finding incriminating evidence.

These guys make bedbugs look harmless in comparison.  All bedbugs want is your blood.

Image of sleeping woman by KellyP42 for MorgueFile.