A 2016 review led by Muza in the journal Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine(opens in new tab) found that women are more likely to masturbate during an episode, whilst men most frequently report initiating sexual intercourse with the person in the bed beside them.

Dr. Carlos Schenck(opens in new tab), a professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said disorders of partial awakening tend to involve one of our basic instincts.

"Eating, sex, walking, fear — all these basic instincts and primitive behaviors can be inappropriately released during sleep," he told Live Science.

In one 2019 study, published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology(opens in new tab), 80% of participants with sleep-related motor behaviors found stressful situations could lead to more episodes, while a 2023 study in the journal Military Medicine(opens in new tab), which examined four individuals, suggested the stress of being on military duty may increase service members' risk for all non-REM parasomnias.

For sexsomnia to be diagnosed, a physician must first rule out other conditions that can present in similar ways, including epilepsy and obstructive sleep apnea, Muza told Live Science.

Finally, a physician would run a sleep study — called a polysomnography, which records brain waves, blood oxygen levels, heart rate, breathing, and eye and leg movements — to monitor a person's nighttime activity.