Sexsomnia — A New Parasomnia ? Colin

Parasomnias are well-described, common nocturnal phenomena. By definition, parasomnias are “events that occur intermittently or episodically during the night” (1,2). They may occur in any phase of sleep. Most parasomnias are characterized by partial arousals before, during, or after the event. There are several classifications of the major parasomnias—a widely used description of the types of parasomnias is provided in DSM-IV (3) and the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (4). New additions are expected to enter the International Classification, for example, the newly described disorder of sleep eating (5) and overlap parasomnias (6).