Students at UNH don't know what to think about Professor Mike Mangan's studies about "sexsomnia," a new phenomenon that is defined by Mangan's website www.sleepsex.org, as "sexual behavior that occurs during sleep."
UNH professor Dr. Mangan, who specializes in sleep disorders has been studying "sexsomnia" since 1999. Mangan became interested in this form of sleep disorders after reading a case study about two instances of sexsomnia involving middle aged men.
"I found it interesting that here was a sleep problem with forensic implications, that may be somewhat common, for which there was virtually no research, no diagnosis and no treatment," he said "It seemed to be an area someone needed to look into."
Over the last year, Mangan has been in contact with the family of a Lowell man who's been charged with the sexual assault of two girls in his care. In this case, Mangan said, "It's clear he did what he did, the behavior happened. The question is was he conscious of it?"
Recently, Mangan has had some attention from the media surrounding his involvement with the Lowell case, including a recent interview with Fox News. About the interview he said, "I talked mostly about sexsomnia, what it is, what causes it, how it can be treated, the implications for victims and their families as well as the persons who exhibit the behavior."
Mangan was careful in his statements to the press. "I did not talk much about the family. I told them the family contacted me about a year ago for information," he said. "I told Fox that the ongoing legal trouble has been a nightmare for the whole family and that their attorney--Veronica White--had advised them not to talk to anyone, me included, until the case is over."
This is an "emerging diagnosis," one that is still being researched and not recognized by the general public as legitimate, and the legal system is still warming to "sexsomnia" as a defense of crimes such as sexual assault and rape, according to Mangan, who said that slowly, precedents are being set across the globe.
There have been cases in places like Australia, England and Norway where "sexsomnia" has been raised as a defense for rape and the accused has been acquitted. However, generally, in the United States," Mangan said, "sleep is not considered a strong base for a defense."
More global cases have been successful in using "sexsomnia" as a defense in England and Canada especially, Mangan said, "because they characterize sleepwalking as a form of insanity," which would make them likely to accept something like "sexsomnia," which is along the same vein.
Mangan said that one trend he's noticed over the years is that usually sexsomniac or "sleepsex" experiences fall into two categories: positive and negative. "It's the problematic cases you hear about," he said.
Students here at UNH are split on how much credibility to give to this emerging diagnosis. There are some who believe it's nothing more than another way to escape punishment for people accused of committing sexual crimes in their sleep.
In 2002, a student visiting University of Massachusetts at Amherst was arrested and charged with allegedly breaking into several female students dorm rooms and sexually assaulting them. He raised "sexsomnia" as a defense and was acquitted.
Justin Joyner, a junior at UNH, thinks that the defense of sleep is ridiculous. In reference to the UMass case, he said, "There's no way someone can be sleepwalking and intentionally break into someone's room, there's just no way." Joyner believes there had to be knowledge of what the suspect was doing. "To break into someone's room, you'd have to know what you're doing," he said, "You can't just be in a 'zombie state.'"
There are some students who could accept the idea of a "sexsomnia" defense. Freshman Katie Kelsall believes that there could be a legitimate base for "sexsomnia" given that there are other disorders involving sleep.
"I've read things about 'sleep eating' where people in a complete state of sleep eat massive amounts of food," she said. If sleep eating is a reality, then sleep sex could be too, especially since people often have erotic dreams," she said, "but I think it could be overused or poorly used in sex crime cases."
Vanessa Schwede, a sophomore, agreed. "My roommate and I talked about it and we both sleep walk and sleep talk and it seems very possible," she said. She expressed concern, however, that if it is allowed as a defense, "then it's going to be used as the excuse."
Paula Sharkey, Schwede's roommate, echoed the same thought. "Pretty much what will happen is it will be overused," she said, "and could result in real offenders getting away with something they did in complete consciousness."
Mangan is used to the skepticism that accompanies the diagnosis of "sexsomnia" but believes in time, people will get used to the idea that it is a real problem for some. "The bottom line is people do lots of crazy things in their sleep; they walk and talk," he said. "Sex just falls out of the realm of possibility for most people. My hunch is that some day people will say it happens; it's just one more thing people do."
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