Can a person have sex when asleep and not know about it? Unbelievable story…

Dear DAILY EXPRESS,

 In Kajiado, a priest slept with a woman and made her pregnant. 

The woman was banished because it was believed that she bewitched the priest to sleep with her unknowingly. The bishop accepted the priest’s version of the story. 

Can anyone sleep with a woman and not remember?

Professional Doctor’s response to this story:

It is true that a man with many sexual partners may not remember some of them. If the priest does not have many sexual partners and actually had coitus with this woman, this may be one of the few stories of a medical condition of sleep sex (sexsomnia). 

Abnormal or unnatural behaviours during sleep are called parasomnias. 


In some documented circumstances, women or men have undressed their sexual counterparts and even put condoms on themselves or on the men while in their sleep before having sex with them. 


Just like in sleepwalking, night dancing and sleep eating, either a woman or a man can have sex while asleep and not be aware of it. Just like sleepwalking, sexsomnia may start early in childhood and continue into adulthood.



People with parasomnias are thought to be bewitched or even attacked by demons requiring exorcism or prayer and yet this is a recognised medical condition. 


That the bishop believed the priest but not the woman may indicate that the bishop may have been aware such a problem exists and as such gave the priest the benefit of doubt to the priest. A DNA test may be necessary for paternity but will not rule out sexsomnia.