That\u2019s under normal <\/em>circumstances \u2013 and, while lockdowns and a deadly pandemic might <\/em>feel increasingly normal to you, these aren\u2019t normal times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question of whether \u201canyone else\u201d has \u201cbeen having\u201d strange sex dreams has become a mainstay in certain online communities. So much so that scientists have begun to sit up and take notice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The notion that people are undergoing the same weird experience at the same time can seem spooky, reassuring, or inevitable, depending on how you see things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re a science person interested in human sexuality, then it\u2019s downright fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The strange-dream phenomenon came just as coronavirus-related restrictions became more widespread. At that time, popular media began reporting on claimed shifts in sexual behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several quick reports point to a recent spike in online pornography searches (Pornhub Insights, 2020<\/a>), sex toy sales (Smothers, 2020<\/a>), and erotic posts on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What might these behavioral changes and sex dreams mean? Are people just generally getting bored and hornier during lockdown?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are several things going on here,\u201d says Justin Lehmiller, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute in Indiana. \u201cBut yes, you have a lot of people at home who have more time on their hands than usual and are lacking their normal social outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jane Teresa Anderson, a dream therapist with a private practice in Tasmania, Australia, shares Lehmiller\u2019s opinion, saying sex must inevitably drift into the dreams of people in lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost people are saying to me that their dreams are not only vivid, but they\u2019re movie length dramas,” Anderson says. \u201cOften our dreams are more vivid when they\u2019re more emotional.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because dreams are fleeting, however, their analysis is inherently based on incomplete information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dreaming takes place in short bursts roughly every 90 minutes during R.E.M. sleep. That\u2019s a stage of rest characterized by rapid eye movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n R.E.M. periods extend over the course of a night\u2019s sleep and increase in so-called \u201cR.E.M. density,\u201d a measure that reflects higher brain activity during sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With some partners separated, and single people unable to date, Anderson says it’s only natural that people will dream about sex more than usual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of those long, sexed-up somnambular journeys can be quite disturbing, too, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dream specialist says that the recent spate of bizarre sex dreams might be both a symbolic and a literal manifestation of people\u2019s bottled-up sexual desires and aspirations. Your dreams might mean what you want in your life right now, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you dream about having sex with a certain person, you have to think about what they mean to you,\u201d says Anderson. \u201cPerhaps they represent keeping a level head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With such a pronounced wave of sex dreams going on night after night, is it too far-fetched to assume that some dreams end in orgasms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve never experienced the quivering, toe-curling, eyeball-rolling pleasure of a nocturnal orgasm, the concept of climaxing while you\u2019re fast asleep may seem improbable. But it does happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, a recent study out of the Kinsey Institute estimates that 80 percent of adult men and 40 percent of adult women have had at least one sleep orgasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlthough we experience the physical effects of having an orgasm in our body, orgasm is actually a process that happens in the brain,\u201d says Vanessa Marin, a sex therapist who runs a private practice in San Francisco. \u201cWe don\u2019t need any physical stimulation for it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While men who experience sleep orgasms wake up to semen on their pajamas or sheets, a woman is unlikely to find the same type of physical evidence, says Marin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not happening, especially among women who are having particularly intense erotic dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tatyannah King, a writer and graduate student in sexology at Widener University, says that – for her, at least \u2013 intense sex dreams are a godsend right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n King says her erotic dreams have become so vivid these days they frequently make her achieve orgasm while sleeping \u2013 a small pleasure that has made lockdown bearable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would simply wake up amid sexually-charged dreams and immediately feel involuntary, rhythmic contractions tremble throughout,\u201d says King. \u201cAnd it felt like a rush of orgasmic euphoria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Some](\"http:\/\/mysecretdrawer.co\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/10\/SEXDREAM-5-wallhere.jpg\")
Strange Sex Dreams are a Sign of the Times<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bored and lonely?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Dreaming](\"http:\/\/mysecretdrawer.co\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/10\/SEX-DREAMS-M.jpg\")
\u201cWe don\u2019t need any physical stimulation for it to happen.\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wet dreams…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/mysecretdrawer.co\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/10\/SEX-DREAM-3.jpg\")
\u201cInvoluntary, Rhythmic Contractions\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/mysecretdrawer.co\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/10\/SEXDREAM-6.jpg\")