Multiple Orgasm in the Human Male

<< Nocturnal Emissions And Age >>

Throughout the present volume, nocturnal dreams have been recorded as outlets only when they have led to actual ejaculation; but all ejaculation during sleep has been recorded, whether reported with or without dreams.

A high percentage of all males experience nocturnal emissions at some time in their lives. Ultimately, about 83 per cent is involved (Table 133, Figure 138). There is 17 per cent of the male population that never seems to have nocturnal emissions. Somewhat similar data have been reported by some other investigators (Achilles 1923, Peck and Wells 1923, 1925, Hughes 1926, Hamilton 1929, Willoughby 1937). The figures differ considerably for different social levels, the highest incidence being among those males who go to college and the lowest among males of the grade school level.

At some time prior to the contribution of their histories, approximately two-thirds (about 65 per cent) of the females in the sample had dreams that were overtly sexual (Table 41f). The accumulative incidence curves indicate that 37 per cent of the females in the sample had experienced dreams which had led to orgasm by the age of 45 (Table 42f, Figure 21f). This means that 63 per cent had not dreamed to orgasm by that age. The data on the present sample indicate, however, that nearly half of this 63 per cent (i.e., 34 per cent of the total female sample) had had dreams without orgasm. Including females of all ages, it may, therefore, be estimated that a total of more than 70 per cent have sex dreams in the course of their lives, whether with or without orgasm.
Incidences of dreams to orgasm in the female are also reported in: Schbankov acc. Weissenberg 1924a:9 (in 12 per cent of 324 female Russian students).

Tables 133, 42f. Accumulative incidence data on nocturnal emissions

Age	Nocturnal Emissions: Accumulative Incidence Data
	Total Population U. S. Corrections				Educ. Level 0-8				Educ. Level 9-12				Educ. Level 13+ (13-16)				Educ. Level 17+
	Males		Females		Males		Females		Males		Females		Males		Females		Females
	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.	Cases	% with Exper.
8	3986	0.1			681	0.0			494	0.2			2811	0.0
9	3986	0.1			681	0.0			494	0.2			2811	0.0
10	3986	0.2			681	0.0			494	0.2			2811	0.5
11	3985	0.8			680	0.3			494	0.4			2811	3.2
12	3985	3.3	5720		680	1.0	175	1	494	2.4	1001	—	2811	11.6	3255	—	1138	1
13	3985	9.8			680	3.7			494	8.1			2811	29.1
14	3982	25.3			677	11.8			494	25.7			2811	52.2
15	3976	39.6	5658	2	671	25.3	169	2	494	39.9	1000	2	2811	68.9	3255	2	1138	4
16	3955	54.1			654	39.1			491	55.6			2810	80.7
17	3896	63.1			617	47.5			471	65.6			2808	87.0
18	3758	71.4			590	56.9			436	74.3			2732	91.0
19	3527	73.6			560	60.2			399	76.2			2568	92.6
20	3222	77.0	4291	8	532	65.8	123	8	357	79.0	850	8	2333	93.6	2181	8	1137	10
21	2848	78.7			508	67.5			313	80.8			2027	94.5
22	2446	80.0			488	70.1			290	81.7			1668	94.7
23	2131	81.8			472	70.8			264	84.5			1395	94.8
24	1839	81.5			452	71.9			237	83.1			1150	95.7
25	1654	81.5	2766	16	432	73.1	113	13	221	83.7	679	16	1001	96.2	1032	14	942	17
26	1510	81.6			420	73.8			207	83.1			883	96.5
27	1374	81.9			405	73.6			196	84.2			773	96.2
28	1268	82.9			391	74.2			179	85.5			698	96.6
29	1159	83.2			367	74.9			159	85.5			633	96.8
30	1064	82.8	2035	23	351	76.1	105	21	141	85.1	497	24	572	97.2	703	23	730	24
31	988	82.7			331	75.5			129	85.3			528	97.3
32	929	82.9			319	76.2			119	84.9			491	97.6
33	868	82.5			305	75.7			116	84.5			447	97.5
34	814	82.6			296	75.3			107	85.0			411	98.1
35	757	81.2	1464	30	282	74.8	87	23	94	85.1	319	30	381	98.4	492	31	566	29
36	713	81.0			269	74.3			89	85.4			355	98.6
37	651	80.6			251	74.1			78	84.6			322	98.4
38	620	81.1			242	74.8			72	84.7			306	98.7
39	565	80.3			220	74.1			66	83.3			279	98.6
40	516	78.8	944	33	200	73.5	63	32	60	81.7	193	30	256	99.2	300	34	388	34
41	480	78.0			188	72.9			55	80.0			237	99.6
42	452	77.2			180	72.2			52	78.8			220	99.5
43	405	77.0			164	71.3			50	80.0			191	99.5
45			570	37							126	33			165	41	236	36
50			308	40
“Educ. level 0-8” are those who had never gone beyond grade school. “9-12” are those who had gone into high school, but never beyond. “13+” are those who will ultimately go to college. “13-16” are those who had gone into college, but had not had more than four years of college. “17+” are those who had gone beyond college into post-graduate or professional training.
Covering the life span, including both single and married histories. In three educational levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.

Figures 138, 21f, 139. Nocturnal emissions: accumulative incidence, in total
U. S. population (among males and females) and in three educational levels

Showing percent of total population that has ever experienced nocturnal emissions
by each of the indicated ages.
All data based on total population, irrespective of marital status,
and corrected for the U. S. Census distribution.

Over 99 per cent of the males who go to college have nocturnal emissions at some time in their lives, but only 85 per cent of the high school males, and only 75 per cent of the males who never go beyond grade school (Table 133, Figure 139). The high incidence figures given in some of the previous studies (e.g., Peterson 1938) apply, obviously, only to the college populations on which the data were based.

The educational background of the male does seem to have a direct effect on the frequencies of his nocturnal emissions. The males who go furthest in their educational careers appear to have better developed imaginative capacities, and this seems to have an effect upon the development of their psychosexual responses. Unmarried males of the college level have nocturnal sex dreams with frequencies (medians) which are between three and four times those of the males who never go beyond grade school; but females who have college and graduate school training do not have sex dreams any more frequently than those who have not gone beyond grade school or high school. In the available sample, there seems to have been no correlation between the educational background of the female and the accumulative or active incidence of her nocturnal sex dreams, or the frequency with which she had such dreams to the point of orgasm. Similarly, the portion of the total outlet which she had derived from her nocturnal orgasms did not seem to have been related to the female's educational level.

For males, nocturnal emissions enter the picture somewhat later than other sources of sexual outlet (Table 52, Table 62, Figures 59-64). In only a small number of cases do they appear at the very beginning of adolescence. Even in those cases where dreams provide the first source of ejaculation, pubic hair and other physical characteristics usually indicate that the individual became adolescent a year or more before the first emission. There are 4 cases of persons who were past 40 before they had their first nocturnal emission. Nevertheless, dreams to climax are primarily a phenomenon of the teens and the twenties.

Tables 52, 43f. Nocturnal emissions and age
Active Incidence, Frequency, and Percentage of Outlet Dreams to Orgasm
By Age and Marital Status

Age Group	Cases	Nocturnal emissions: Sample Population							Nocturnal emissions: U. S. Population
		Total population			Active Population				Total population		Active Population
		Mean Frequency	Me- dian Freq.	% of Total Outlet	Incid. %	Mean Frequency per wk.	Me- dian Freq.	% of Total Outlet	Mean Freq.	% of Total Outlet	Incid. %	Mean Freq.	% of Total Outlet
Single Males
Adol.-15	3012	0.22 ± 0.01	0.01	7.80	52.2	0.43 ± 0.02	0.21	26.49 ± 0.88	0.14	4.55	39.1	0.36	19.97
16-20	2868	0.32 ± 0.01	0.12	11.29	80.3	0.40 ± 0.01	0.23	21.72 ± 0.58	0.23	7.41	70.2	0.33	15.53
21-25	1535	0.33 ± 0.02	0.12	12.40	80.8	0.40 ± 0.02	0.23	23.47 ± 0.81	0.24	8.30	70.9	0.34	17.36
26-30	550	0.28 ± 0.02	0.10	10.67	78.7	0.35 ± 0.02	0.22	22.98 ± 1.38	0.22	7.92	69.9	0.32	17.86
31-35	195	0.19 ± 0.02	0.07	8.11	70.8	0.27 ± 0.03	0.15	21.68 ± 2.51	0.17	7.34	64.3	0.27	21.50
36-40	97	0.12 ± 0.02	0.03	5.93	59.8	0.20 ± 0.03	0.10	19.12 ± 3.63	0.10	5.17	56.4	0.18	16.17
41-45	56	0.08 ± 0.03	0.00	4.73	48.2	0.17 ± 0.05	0.08	19.48 ± 5.49	....	....	....	....	....
Married Males
16-20	272	0.13 ± 0.02	0.01	2.85	52.9	0.25 ± 0.04	0.09	5.57 ± 0.88	0.12	2.52	53.3	0.23	5.17
21-25	751	0.14 ± 0.01	0.03	3.68	59.0	0.24 ± 0.02	0.09	6.49 ± 0.54	0.12	3.09	58.4	0.21	5.45
26-30	737	0.14 ± 0.01	0.03	4.29	62.6	0.22 ± 0.02	0.08	6.49 ± 0.51	0.13	3.65	50.8	0.23	6.00
31-35	569	0.12 ± 0.01	0.03	4.54	60.6	0.20 ± 0.02	0.08	7.18 ± 0.70	0.11	3.73	51.5	0.21	6.56
36-40	390	0.11 ± 0.01	0.01	4.40	53.3	0.20 ± 0.02	0.08	6.80 ± 0.70	0.08	3.24	42.1	0.19	5.99
41-45	272	0.09 ± 0.01	0.01	4.50	54.4	0.16 ± 0.02	0.08	7.49 ± 1.02	0.07	3.55	41.1	0.18	6.08
46-50	175	0.07 ± 0.01	0.00	3.91	48.0	0.15 ± 0.02	0.07	9.40 ± 1.81	0.06	2.97	34.9	0.15	9.79
51-55	109	0.07 ± 0.02	0.00	4.42	44.0	0.15 ± 0.03	0.07	7.90 ± 1.91	0.06	3.50	30.4	0.18	10.06
56-60	67	0.03 ± 0.01	0.00	2.73	28.4	0.10 ± 0.02	0.07	13.79 ± 6.03			....	....
Single Females
Adol.-15	5677	0.01 ± 0.002		2	2	0.36 ± 0.081	0.08
16-20	5613	0.02 ± 0.002		3	8	0.20 ± 0.022	0.07
21-25	2810	0.02 ± 0.002		3	11	0.18 ± 0.019	0.07
26-30	1064	0.02 ± 0.004		3	15	0.16 ± 0.025	0.07
31-35	539	0.03 ± 0.004		3	19	0.14 ± 0.019	0.07
36-40	315	0.02 ± 0.005		2	22	0.12 ± 0.021	0.06
41-45	179	0.03 ± 0.007		2	18	0.14 ± 0.033	0,07
46-50	109	0.03 ± 0.011		4	18	0.18 ± 0.054	0.08
51-55	58	0.03 ± 0.016		5	14
56-60	27	0.06 ± 0.0U8		15	7
Married Females
16-20	578	0.04 ± 0.012		1	10	0.36 ± 0.115	0.08
21-25	1654	0.03 ± 0.005		1	15	0.22 ± 0.032	0.07
26-30	1662	0.04 ± 0.004		1	21	0.17 ± 0.016	0.07
31-35	1246	0.04 ± 0.005		2	26	0.17 ± 0.017	0.07
36-40	851	0.04 ± 0.004		2	28	0.14 ± 0.014	0.07
41-45	497	0.04 ± 0.006		2	31	0.13 ± 0.017	0.07
46-50	260	0.04 ± 0.008		3	32	0.13 ± 0.022	0.06
51-55	118	0.06 ± 0.019		6	29	0.21 ± 0.062	0.07
56-60	49	0.06 ± 0.024		9	29	0.19 ± 0.072	0.08
Previously Married Females
16-20	72	0.01 ± 0.004			11
21-25	239	0.07 ± 0.027		4	21	0.32 ± 0.127	0.08
26-30	328	0.09 ± 0.025		5	26	0.33 ± 0.088	0.08
31-35	304	0.09 ± 0.023		5	33	0.26 ± 0.066	0.08
36-40	245	0.08 ± 0.021		5	38	0.22 ± 0.054	0.07
41-45	195	0.08 ± 0.023		6	36	0.24 ± 0.060	0.08
46-50	126	0.14 ± 0.060		14	36	0.41 ± 0.161	0.09
51-55	82	0.09 ± 0.029		11	38	0.24 ± 0.070	0.08
56-60	53	0.05 ± 0.014		13	30	0.16 ± 0.032	0.09
In this, and in the succeeding charts in this and the following chapter, means and medians represent average frequencies per week. “% of Total Outlet” in the total population shows what portion of the total number of orgasms is derived from masturbation in the total population. A total of such figures for all the possible sources of outlet equals 100%, which is the total outlet of the group. “% of Total Outlet” for the active population represents the mean of the figures showing the percentage of the total outlet which is derived from this source by each individual who has any masturbation in his history, in that particular age period. The percents for the several possible outlets do not total 100% because different individuals are involved in the populations utilizing each type of outlet.
U. S. population figures are corrections of the raw data for a population whose age, marital status, and educational level are the same as those shown in the U. S. Census for 1940.

The highest incidence of nocturnal emissions is about 71 per cent among single males 21 to 25 years of age. By 50, only about a third of the males still experience such dreams. By 60 years of age only 14 per cent still has them. It is interesting to note that dreams as an occasional source of ejaculation still appear in the histories of men as old as 86.

Table 62. Nocturnal emissions in relation to marital status and age

Nocturnal Emissions, Marital Status, and Age
Age Group	Total Sample Population
	Cases				Mean Frequency			% of Total Outlet
	Single		Mar- ried	Post- mar- ital	Single	Mar- ried	Post- mar ital	Single	Mar- ried	Post- mar- ital
Adol.-15	3012				0.22			7.80
16-20	2868		272	46	0.32	0.13	0.17	11.29	2.85	4.27
21-25	1535		751	119	0.33	0.14	0.16	12.40	3.68	4.44
26-30	550		737	182	0.28	0.14	0.17	10.67	4.29	5.79
31-35	195		569	158	0.19	0.12	0.10	8.11	4.54	4.89
36-40	97		390	128	0.12	0.11	0.08	5.93	4.40	4.90
41-45	56		272	96	0.08	0.09	0.08	4.73	4.50	5.53
46-50	39		175	63	0.07	0.07	0.08	3.51	3.91	5.96
51-55			109	42		0.07	0.05		4.42	4.13
56-60			67			0.03			2.73
Age Group	Active Cases in Sample Population
	Incidence %				Mean Frequency			% of Total Outlet
	Single		Mar- ried	Post- mar- ital	Single	Mar- ried	Post- mar ital	Single	Mar- ried	Post- mar- ital
Adol.-15	52.2				0.43			26.49
16-20	80.3		52.9	69.6	0.40	0.25	0.25	21.72	5.57	11.59
21-25	80.8		59.0	62.2	0.40	0.24	0.26	23.47	6.49	10.33
26-30	78.7		62.6	63.7	0.35	0.22	0.26	22.98	6.49	12.55
31-35	70.8		60.6	58.2	0.27	0.20	0.16	21.68	7.18	12.35
36-40	59.8		53.3	53.9	0.20	0.20	0.16	19.12	6.80	17.09
41-45	48.2		54.4	38.5	0.17	0.16	0.21	19.48	7.49	21.58
46-50	28.2		48.0	31.7	0.23	0.15	0.24	19.59	9.40	21.25
51-55			44.0	26.2		0.15	0.19		7.90	10.27
56-60			28.4			0.10			13.79
Age Group	Corrected for U. S. Population
	Total Population				Active Population
	Mean Frequency		% of Total Outlet		Incidence %		Mean Frequency		% of Total Outlet
	Sin- gle	Mar- ried	Sin- gle	Mar- ried	Sin- gle	Mar- ried	Sin- gle	Mar- ried	Sin- gle	Mar- ried
Adol.-15	0.14		4.55		39.1		0.36		19.97
16-20	0.23	0.12	7.41	2.52	70.2	53.3	0.33	0.23	15.53	5.17
21-25	0.24	0.12	8.28	3.09	70.9	58.4	0.34	0.21	17.36	5.45
26-30	0.22	0.13	7.92	3.65	69.9	50.8	0.32	0.23	17.86	6.00
31-35	0.17	0.11	7.34	3.73	64.3	51.5	0.27	0.21	21.50	6.56
36-40	0.10	0.08	5.17	3.24	56.4	42.1	0.18	0.19	16.17	5.99
41-45		0.07		3.55		41.1		0.18		6.08
46-50		0.06		2.97		34.9		0.15		9.79
51-55		0.06		3.50		30.4		0.18		10.06
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas of means, median frequencies, etc., see the Table 52.

Figures 59-64. Relation of age and marital status to nocturnal emissions

In all social groups, nocturnal emissions are primarily an outlet of younger adolescent and older teen-age boys. It is interesting to find that they ordinarily do not begin with the first signs of adolescence. Most boys obtain their first orgasms through self stimulation or from physical contacts with other individuals, either in late pre-adolescence or immediately with the onset of adolescence. It is probable that all boys are capable of such orgasm as soon as they turn adolescent, and most of them would be capable at least a year or two before the onset of adolescence. However, the first orgasms resulting from dreams ordinarily do not come until a year or more after the onset of adolescence. Even in those cases where nocturnal emissions provide the very first experiences in orgasm, they almost invariably begin a year or more after the other adolescent developments (pubic hair, voice change, growth in height, etc.) are under way.

In the youngest age group there are a few individuals who dream to climax with average frequencies which run as high as 12 per week, although there are many males who average only a few times per year. The maximum frequencies drop rapidly in successive age groups. At 30 years of age, the maximum is only a third as high, and by 50 years of age it is only a twelfth as high, as at age 15.

Nocturnal emissions vary in frequency in different social levels, the figures being higher for upper level males and lower for more poorly educated males. They reach their highest incidence in single males between 21 and 30 years of age. Among single males of the active population, nocturnal emissions occur with the highest frequency between adolescence and 30 years of age. Among the married males the highest frequency is between 16 and 30 years of age. The highest average frequency, for those single males who have any nocturnal emissions at all, is about once in three weeks (0.3 per week); for the married males, it is once in four weeks (0.23 per week). In both groups there is a decline in frequencies after thirty. Beyond 50 years of age, nocturnal emissions do not average more than four or five per year, for those individuals who have any at all.

In the early twenties, the average single male (total population) derives about one-twelfth (8.3%) of his total outlet from nocturnal dreams. From there on, this outlet is of decreasing importance in the total picture. For those single males who have any dreams at all (active population), they are of greatest importance (21.5% of the total outlet) in the middle thirties. About 85 per cent of the single males have at least some experience with nocturnal dreams that lead to climax.

Hardly more than half of the married males (58.4%) have nocturnal emissions in any particular age group. In younger single males (of the total population), the emissions occur twice as often as among married males of the same age (Table 62, Figures 59-64). In older groups, the incidences and frequencies of nocturnal emissions in married males are about two-thirds of what they are in single males. Among married males they are of lesser significance, accounting for about 3 per cent of the total ejaculations of the total population throughout the life span. They steadily rise in importance among the males in the active portion of the married population, representing 5 per cent of the outlet of the younger married males, and 10 per cent of the outlet of the older married males who ever do dream to the point of climax. This, in conjunction with the higher rates of total sexual outlet in the married groups, means that nocturnal dreams provide 5 to 15 per cent of the outlet of the single males, but only 2 to 6 per cent of the outlet of the married males. The lower percentages are in lower educational levels, the higher percentages in upper educational levels.

The number of females in the sample who were experiencing nocturnal dreams to the point of orgasm (the active incidence) in any particular five-year period was, however, small. The incidences ranged from 2 to 38 per cent in the various age groups, but they were usually between 10 and 33 per cent (Table 43f). Because of the low frequencies with which such dreams occur, it is probable that not much more than 10 per cent of the females in the population which is adolescent or older in age, have nocturnal dreams to the point of orgasm within any single year.

Nocturnal sex dreams carried to the point of orgasm appear to provide some physiologic outlet, albeit never more than a minor outlet, for about a third of the females. Nocturnal dreams had accounted for approximately 2 to 3 per cent of the total number of orgasms experienced by the females in the total sample, including both the single and married females of most of the age groups. The figure was low, in part because there were three-quarters or more of the females in each age group who were not having any nocturnal orgasms, and in part because the frequencies were always low.
That dreams provide some physiologic release is also noted in Heyn 1924:64 ff.

A somewhat lower proportion of the single females, a higher proportion of the married females, and a still higher proportion of the previously married females were having sex dreams to orgasm (the active incidences) (Table 43f). The peak for the single females had come at age forty with 22 per cent involved; it had come for the married females at age fifty with 32 per cent involved. For the previously married females it had come at age fifty-five with 38 per cent involved.

In contrast to the above, the male peak in nocturnal dreams is reached in the late teens or twenties, some twenty or thirty years before the female reaches the peak of her dream activity. The later development in the female of an outlet which so largely depends upon psychologic stimuli is a matter that must be considered in any comparison of the female and the male.

Nocturnal sex dreams had occurred among fewer of the younger females (the active incidence), and among many more of the older females in the sample. It was about 2 per cent who had had dreams to orgasm between adolescence and 15 years of age, but the percentages increased in the older groups. Some 22 to 38 per cent of the females in the sample were having such dreams between the ages of forty and fifty (Table 43f). After that the incidences began to decline. We have only one instance of a female over seventy years of age who was having sex dreams to orgasm.
For correlations of nocturnal dreams with the age of the female, see also: Havelock Ellis and Moll in Moll 1911, 1921:614 (less commonly in the female, more often in the male during adolescence). Heyn 1924:63 (an occasional instance before first menstruation). Hamilton 1929:313, 320 (says 2 per cent by age 16, has 1 case before first menstruation; 21 out of 40 married women who had experienced sex dreams, had them more frequently in later marriage).

Nocturnal dreams had provided only 2 per cent of the total outlet of the younger single females in the sample and 4 per cent of the total outlet of the unmarried older females. Among younger married females, the orgasms obtained through nocturnal dreams had accounted for only 1 per cent of the total sexual outlet. However, the relative importance of the dreams had gradually increased as coital activities slowed up with advancing age, and the dreams had finally accounted for about 3 per cent of the outlet of the married females in their late forties. In the histories of the females who had been previously married, and who in consequence had had their chief source of outlet, marital coitus, more or less suddenly withdrawn, orgasms derived from nocturnal dreams had accounted for a more significant part of the total picture. Among the younger females in the sample who had been previously married, and who were now widowed, separated, or divorced, the dreams had accounted for 4 or 5 per cent of the total number of orgasms. Among the older females who had been previously married, the dreams had accounted for as much as 14 per cent of the total outlet. The the frequencies of the nocturnal dreams, which seem a better measure of the female's innate sexuality, had not changed in the long span of years between adolescence and fifty, or under any of the various social conditions imposed by marriage, education, rural-urban backgrounds, religion, and other factors.

In the sample, the average (median) female who had had sex dreams to the point of orgasm was having such dreams at a rate of 3 or 4 times per year (an active median frequency of 0.06 to 0.08 per week). For perhaps 25 per cent, the experience had not occurred more than 1 to 6 times in their lives .
Additional data on the frequencies of nocturnal orgasms may be found in Loewenfeld 1908:596 (individual variation). Heyn 1924:61-62 (frequency higher in females with “stronger sex drive”). Hamilton 1929:315-316 (12 out of 15 single females had frequencies of 3 per year or less. Of 41 females, 56 per cent had dreams only after marriage, 34 per cent had them both before and after marriage, and 10 per cent had them only before marriage).

The most extreme frequencies in any individual history were also low. There were only seven or eight histories among the nearly six thousand in which the dreams had occurred with average frequencies of more than 1.5 per week (three times in two weeks) during any five-year period. There were only one unmarried female over thirty years of age, two or three married females over forty years of age, and four previously married females over forty years of age who had had dreams which average more than once per week. For some other females, exceptional circumstances had produced several nocturnal dreams within a particular week, or even two or three times in a single night, but this was a very rare occurrence. Such high frequencies had almost never extended over any prolonged period of time.
Exceptional frequencies of more than one per night are also noted by: Stekel 1923:81; 1950:159. Heyn 1924:64. Hamilton 1929:315.

Among women who had been deprived of some drug to which they had been addicted, we have five cases of a considerable increase in the frequencies of sex dreams to orgasm for a matter of a few days or a week or two, but such withdrawal symptoms are more marked among men and less frequently seen among women.

In most male groups there are individuals who have nocturnal emissions with frequencies which average as high as four to seven, and in some instances as high as fourteen per week over some period of years (see our 1948:521). The range of the variation in the frequencies of nocturnal dreams to orgasm is, therefore, much more limited among females. This is the only instance of a sexual outlet in which the range of individual variation is more limited among females than it is among males. As we have already noted (Chapter 5), there are females who do not masturbate more than once or twice in a lifetime, and there are females who report masturbating to orgasm as frequently as a hundred times in an hour; such exceedingly high rates are never approached by the male. In their pre-marital petting, there are some females who reach orgasm more frequently than any known male. Similarly, the maximum frequencies of orgasm among females in coitus may far exceed the maximum frequencies attained by any male. It is only in the frequencies of nocturnal orgasms that the maximum frequencies for the females fall below the maximum frequencies for the males. In sexual responses which depend primarily

Upon physical stimulation, the extreme females surpass the males; but in such responses as dreaming to orgasm, which depend primarily upon psychologic stimuli, the males surpass the females.

There were some females, including as many as 2 per cent of those with masturbation in their histories, who were capable of reaching orgasm through fantasy alone (Table 37), and this is beyond the capacity of almost any male. This would seem evidence of a high level of psychologic response in those particular females. But even these most responsive females do not have nocturnal orgasms with frequencies which approach those of the more responsive males or even of the average male. It is not immediately apparent why the psychologic responsiveness of a female when she is awake should not be correlated with a similar level of responsiveness when she is asleep.

While the number of females who were dreaming to orgasm increased with advancing age, there was no correlation between the age of the individual and the frequencies with which she was having experience (Table 43f). The frequencies with which the average female in the sample had had nocturnal orgasms (the active median frequencies) were more or less constant for the single and married females of all age groups from adolescence to forty or fifty years of age; for the females of the grade school, high school, college, and graduate school levels; for the females of the various religious, occupational, and rural-urban groups on which we have sufficient data; for the females who became adolescent at various ages; and for the females of the several generations represented in the sample. This is one of the significant aspects of the record. Marital experience had evidently developed the imaginative capacities of some females who had not had sex dreams before marriage, and of a still larger number of those who had become widowed, separated, or divorced; but even the greatly increased experience which regular coitus had provided had not succeeded in increasing the frequencies of the nocturnal fantasies for the average (median) female. There seems to have been no consistent correlation between the ages at which the females in the sample had turned adolescent, and their involvement in nocturnal dreams (the accumulative and active incidence figures), or the frequencies with which they had them (the active median and mean frequencies). The average frequencies for those who were having dreams (the active median frequencies) remained around 3 to 4 times per year (something below 0.1 per week) from adolescence to the oldest age groups on which we have good samples—at least to age sixty-five, including the single, married, and previously married females.

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