<< Significance of Fantasies >>

It is possible that the first sexual responses of an infant or younger preadolescent could be evoked by physical stimulation alone; but the human animal is always conditioned by its experiences, and its reactions may come to depend as much upon the previous experience as upon any immediate stimuli. The evidence accumulates that the physical is usually a minor element in evoking sexual responses among older males, and there are few of the responses of an experienced adult which would be possible without a sufficient psychologic accompaniment.

Time and again a male may fail to respond to particular physical contacts, while responding almost instantly to more minor stimulation which comes under other circumstances (Vecki 1920, Haire 1937, Lovell 1940, Weiss and English 1943). His responses in the heterosexual may be immediate, while he experiences a minimum of arousal, or none at all, when subjected to identical techniques in contact with another male. The next male’s responses, on the contrary, may be immediate in the homosexual, and completely fail in the heterosexual. Some males are impotent when they attempt extra-marital intercourse, although they may be perfectly potent with their own wives. Other males may become impotent with their wives and capable of performing only with extra-marital partners. There are a few males who are impotent when they attempt to masturbate, although they are potent enough under other circumstances. There are males who are potent and respond to the point of orgasm in petting, although they block and become incapable of performing when they attempt actual coitus. Such differential impotency emphasizes the importance of the psychic element in sexual activities.

Except for inexperienced children, most males come to erection if there is any considerable arousal, even before they have made physical contacts. The exceptions include those males who have had such an abundance of sexual activity (as among certain lower level groups) that they are psychologically satisfied or even fatigued; and among upper level groups, where psychic stimulation means most to the individual, there are some males who do not erect in anticipation of a sexual situation because they are inhibited by moral or social training. This further emphasizes the importance of the psychic factor in a sexual relation.

Psychic stimulation during sleep is a more familiar phenomenon. It results in orgasm much more often than does psychic stimulation during waking hours. This is probably due to the fact that one is not so inhibited during sleep. Orgasm as the product of nocturnal dreams is well known in the male, but it is not so generally understood that similar orgasm during sleep is not uncommon in the female, especially in the older and sexually more experienced female (Ellis 1936). In the male, nocturnal emissions or wet dreams are generally accepted as a usual part of the sexual picture.
The term nocturnal sex dreams is generally used for all sex dreams in sleep, whether they occur in sleep at night or in sleep during the daytime.

The nocturnal sex dreams of males have been the subject of extensive literary, pornographic, scientific, and religious discussion. The male, projecting his own experience, frequently assumes that females have similar dreams, and in erotic literature as well as in actual life he not infrequently expresses the hope that the female in whom he is interested may be dreaming of him at night. He may think it inevitable that anyone who is in love should dream of having overt sexual relations with her lover.
This projection of the male's hope that the female is dreaming of him is found as far back as Ovid in the first century B.C. See: Ovid: Heroides, 15:123-134; 19:55-66 (1921:188-190, 262-264).

But relatively few records of female dreams have been available to establish such a thesis. Even some of the best of the statistical studies of sexual behavior have failed to recognize the existence of nocturnal dreams in the female.
The existence of sex dreams in the human female has been recognized, however, in: Aristotle and Galen acc. Havelock Ellis 1936(1,1):199. Longus [Greek, 3rd cent, a.d.?]: Daphnis and Chloe, 1896:41; 1916:83 (‘Vhat they had not done in the day, they did in a dream*'). Anon., The Fifteen Plagues of a Maiden-head, 1707:4, 6 (“as e'er I'm sleeping in my Bed, I dream I'm mingling with some Man my Thighs. . . . For dreams . . . at the present quench my Lechery.” And, '‘Fancy some Gallant brings to my Arms . . . till breathless, faint, and softly sunk away, I all dissolved in reaking Pleasures lay”). Tissot 1785:233-234 (cites 2 cases). Guibout (1847) acc. Ellis 1936(1,1): 199 (an early French account). Roland 1864:66-69 (a diary account of preadolescent dreams with orgasm). Rosenthal (1875) acc. Kisch 1907:376 (probably the earliest medical discussion of sex dreams in women). Nelson 1888:390-391, 401. Kisch 1907. Rohleder 1907(1). Bloch 1908. Nystrom 1908:20. Moll 1909, 1912. Adler 1911. Talmey 1915:246. Hirschfeld 1920. Robie 1925. Marcuse in Moll 1926(2). Blanchard and Manasses 1930. Kelly 1930. Childers 1936:446 (Negro and white children). Ellis 1936(1,1) :187-204 (the most detailed discussion of the psychologic aspects of nocturnal sex dreams among females). Stokes 1948. Ford and Beach 1951. Among the few studies which have included specific data on sex dreams among females, note the following: Heyn 1924:60-69 (452 women interviewed in a medical clinic in Germany). Hamilton 1929:313-320 (the most detailed investigation, with material on 100 married women, in 13 tables. The percentages cited here are recalculated from these tables, in order to make them comparable to the present data). But no investigation of such dreams was covered in such important studies of the female as: Davis 1929, Dickinson and Beam 1931, Dickinson and Beam 1934, Landis et al. 1940, and Landis and Bolles 1942. Also see the other authors cited throughout the present chapter.

This is curious, for it has not proved difficult to secure data on these matters. Females who have had nocturnal sex dreams seem to have no more difficulty than males in recalling them, and do not seem to be hesitant in admitting their experience. Whether or not they reach orgasm in these dreams is a matter about which few of them have any doubt. Because the male may find tangible evidence that he has ejaculated during sleep, his record may be somewhat more accurate than the female’s; but vaginal secretions often bear similar testimony to the female’s arousal and/or orgasm during sleep. As with the male, the female is often awakened by the muscular spasms or convulsions which follow her orgasms. Consequently the record seems as trustworthy as her memory can make it, and the actual incidences and frequencies of nocturnal orgasms in the female are probably not much higher than the present calculations show. The violence of the female’s reactions in orgasm is frequently sufficient to awaken the sexual partner with whom she may be sleeping, and from some of these partners we have been able to obtain descriptions of her reactions in the dreams. There can be no question that a female’s responses in sleep are typical of those which she makes when she is awake.

It seems true that the direct physical stimulation of an individual’s body by night clothing, the bed covers, the bed partner, and other pressures on the reposing body may sometimes provide physical stimulation which is sufficient to produce orgasm. The physiologic condition of an individual, including her hormonal constitution, may also have a great deal to do with determining the frequencies of her sex dreams; and her nutritional state, her general health, her fatigue, the temperature of the room, and still other physical and physiologic factors may contribute to the origin of the dreams. Certainly there is a portion of the daytime sexual activity of the male and more of the daytime activity of the female which depends primarily on physical stimulation, with a minimum accompaniment of any psychologic imagery or fantasy; but the physical and physiologic stimuli which seem conducive to the development of orgasm in sleep are rarely of the sort which would be sufficient to produce orgasm when one is awake. It is not impossible, and it is even quite probable that a lowered threshold of response during sleep makes it possible for a lesser physical stimulus to precipitate sexual responses at that time; but if physical stimuli alone were sufficient, one might expect them to produce nocturnal orgasms with considerable regularity and with much greater frequency than they usually occur, for the necessary physical and physiologic conditions would appear to be present quite regularly under normal sleeping conditions. It seems probable, therefore, that psychologic stimuli are involved to a greater extent than any of the physical and physiologic factors.

At various points in the literature the opinion has been expressed that nocturnal dreams in the female are an expression of some neurotic disturbance, and that "normal,” well adjusted females do not dream to the point of orgasm. The very fact that nocturnal sex dreams are not as universal in the female as they are in the male seems to have contributed to the opinion that they are pathologic. There is a tendency to consider anything in human behavior that is unusual, not well known, or not well understood, as neurotic, psychopathic, immature, perverse, or an expression of some other sort of psychologic disturbance. Curiously enough, the persons who contend that sex dreams represent neurotic disturbances in the female admit that it is impossible to believe that 80 per cent or more of the male population is to be considered neurotic simply because that percentage has nocturnal sex dreams which effect orgasm.
The opinion that females who have sex dreams are neurotic is expressed in: Kisch 1907:576. Krafft-Ebing acc. Kisch 1907:377. Loewenfeld 1908:596. Bloch 1908:439-440 (includes older references). Krafft-Ebing acc. Heyn 1924:60. Heyn 1924:63 objects to this neurotic interpretation.

In respect to the male, the opinion is quite generally held that nocturnal emissions are the product of “accumulated pressures in reproductive glands.” It is implied that semen accumulates in the testes (!), and that when those glands become full the resultant pressures touch off some mechanism which leads to orgasm and to seminal discharges in sleep.
Instances of this opinion that accumulated pressures in various structures are responsible for nocturnal sex dreams in the male (and, by a parallelism, in the female) may be found in: Loewenfeld 1908:598 (discusses a hypothetic increase of arousability of the cortical sex centers determined by an accumulation of libidogenic matters in the blood). Hammer acc. Heyn 1924:61 (a discharge from over-strained mucous glands). Rice 1933:39, 41. Kahn 1939: 26. The erotic literature consistently refers to pressures in the testes.

The anatomy and physiology in any such explanation is, however, quite incorrect. Semen consists primarily of secretions of the prostate gland and seminal vesicles, and it receives only a microscopic bit of sperm from the testes themselves. There seem to be no sufficient data to show that pressures in the prostate and seminal vesicles, or in any other glands, actually stimulate the lower spinal centers which are concerned in sexual responses. The very fact that females, without testes, prostate glands, or seminal vesicles, still have nocturnal orgasms provides good evidence that glandular pressures probably have little or nothing to do with nocturnal emissions in the male. When mechanical stimulation results in nocturnal orgasms, it is more likely to be the tactile stimulation of some body surface which is involved.

Among both females and males, nocturnal sex dreams, more than any other type of sexual outlet, appear to have their origins in what are primarily psychologic stimuli.
Male paraplegics whose spinal cords have been severed may have nocturnal sex dreams and sometimes ejaculate. See: Shelden and Bors 1948: 388. Talbot 1949:266. Bors, Engle, Rosenquist, and Holliger 1950:393. In such paraplegics, psychologic stimulation of the genital area is impossible. Because of this, Ford and Beach 1951:164 state, “It seems more probable that sexual dreams associated with genital reflexes are a product of sensations arising in the tumescent phallus.” With this interpretation we do not wholly agree. While the data from the paraplegics show that orgasm during sleep may be induced by physical stimulation alone, they do not disprove our contention that psychologic fantasies are, in the intact individual, the primary sources of the nocturnal responses.

There is a longstanding and widespread opinion that nocturnal orgasms provide a “natural” outlet for persons who abstain from other types of sexual activity. The frequencies of the dreams are supposed to have an inverse relation to the frequencies of other sexual activities, thus providing a safety valve for the “sexual energy” which accumulates when other outlets are unavailable or are not being utilized. Some authors, for instance, assert that orgasms in sleep occur only among unmarried virgins, or among married females when orgasm has not been reached in coitus, or when spouses are separated, or when marital coitus is for any other reason not available.
As examples of this concept of a compensatory function in the female’s nocturnal sex dreams, see: Rohleder 1907(1):231. Kisch 1907:576-577 (dreams when frigid in coitus). Loewenfeld 1908:596 (dreams correlated with high erotic responsiveness). Adler 1911:129. Hammer and Mantegazza acc. Heyn 1924: 60-61. Heyn 1924:62-63, 69 et passim (dreams correlated with high erotic responsiveness). Krafft-Ebing 1924:97. Marcuse in Moll 1926(2):861 (dreams because of cultural restraints on other outlets). Moll 1926(2):1076. Hamilton 1929:320 (of 42 females, 52 per cent found their dreams compensatory). Dickinson and Beam 1931:185, 285 (as a substitute for unsatisfactory coitus)."

The theory has considerable moral importance, for it recognizes nocturnal dreams as an acceptable form of sexual outlet—the only acceptable form outside of vaginal coitus. In both Jewish and Catholic codes, vaginal coitus in marriage, and such preliminary play as will lead to vaginal coitus, is considered the natural means of fulfilling what is taken to be the prime function of sex, namely procreation. Because other forms of sexual activity do not serve this procreative function, none of them except nocturnal dreaming to orgasm is morally acceptable. Orgasm resulting from nocturnal sex dreams is allowed as an exception because, if it is not deliberately induced, it is involuntary and a ‘‘natural” sort of “compensation” for the abstinence. The Catholic code, however, is precise in its condemnation of nocturnal orgasms which have been deliberately induced.
    The Catholic viewpoint on nocturnal dreams to orgasm is this: Such dreams are without fault or sin provided (1) they are not deliberately induced by thought or deed; (2) they are not consciously welcomed and enjoyed. See the following: Arregui 1927:6 (item 8, no. 3), 151 (item 257, no. 1, 2), who says: Pollution in sleep, following from improper thought, since it no longer belongs to the free will, is not in itself imputed to sin, but the placing of the cause from which it was foreseen to be about to follow is imputed to sin. Nocturnal pollution which is not at all voluntary, is free from all fault, although it pleases the one sleeping. To promote the dreams by touch, movement, etc., is grave .... not positively to hinder it is no sin provided the danger of consent be lacking. Pollution caused in sleep by chaste conversation held on the day before with a person of the opposite sex, by strongly seasoned foods, by liquors, or by a rather suitable position on the bed, is not imputed to sin, even though it was foreseen, provided, however, that it was not intended or, once having arisen, deliberately admitted.
    Davis 1946(2):243, 246, says: Since pollution directly voluntary is a grave sin, it is not permitted even for the purpose of recovering health or for relieving pain, or for calming or destroying the temptations of the flesh. . . . nor is it permitted to give consent to it even though the ejaculation has arisen naturally. Nor is it permitted to release it, already begun, by completing any positive act. But indeed it is not a grave sin to hold oneself passively if no consent be given. Hence, respectable dancing, reasonable sport, moderate eating and drinking, kisses and embraces according to the custom of the country among those engaged and among friends are permitted, even though pollution may follow, be foreseen or permitted, but in no way intended, nor while it is going on considered as pleasing and welcome.
    The Jewish interpretation is typified by the statement in Leviticus 15:15-16, that nocturnal emissions make one unclean, and one must wash and be unclean until the evening.

The belief that nocturnal dreams are compensatory carries the promise that undue physiologic tensions will be relieved if an individual remains abstinent. For those who accept the theory as an established fact, it is then possible to contend that there are no biologic or medical reasons which should make it impossible for anyone, female or male, to remain completely abstinent and chaste before marriage. But the compensatory function of nocturnal dreaming to orgasm has, as far as we have been able to discover, never been established by scientifically adequate data. If there are persons who, being abstinent, have specific records to contribute on this subject, it would be of considerable scientific and social value to have them made available for scientific study.

The moral significance of nocturnal sex dreams has most frequently been considered in connection with the male, but the principle has, on occasion, been extended to the female. Hammer, for instance, asserts that the female who is deprived of other sexual outlets will find relief in nocturnal orgasms once every third day. Mantegazza, however, says once in four or five days. No data are presented, and apparently the very positiveness of these statements is supposed to guarantee that they are based on specific evidence.

It is true that we have few phylogenetic data to establish the evolutionary origin of these dreams in man, for we know of only two instances of nocturnal sex dreams among the females of any lower species of mammal, and only two or three instances in male mammals outside of man. It is, however, very difficult to secure evidence of such dreams in an animal that cannot report its experience, and it is quite probable that further studies will show that such dreams not infrequently occur in other mammalian species. Consequently, one cannot conclude that the near absence of data proves that there is no evolutionary precedent for their occurrence in the human female.
Nocturnal dreams among the males of lower mammals are reported in Ford and Beach 1951:165 for the cat (with ejaculation) and for the shrew (with erection only). We have observed erection in male dogs while they slept. From one of our subjects we have a clear-cut record of sex dreams in a female boxer dog. During periods of heat, the dog regularly showed signs of sexual disturbance while asleep, with body movements, vocalization, vaginal swellings, and the development of vaginal mucous secretions. Dr. Karl Lashley tells us of a female dachshund whining, making pelvic thrusts, and showing genital tumescence in sleep during periods of estrus.

Similarly, there are few records of nocturnal sex dreams among the females of any pre-literate people, although there are more records of sex dreams among males of such groups. This probably proves nothing, although it may suggest that females among primitives, just as among present-day American groups, do not dream to the point of orgasm as frequently as males.
Nocturnal dreams among females of primitive peoples (in every instance without any record of orgasm) are reported in: Crawley 1927(1):233 (for the Yoruba in Africa). Malinowski 1929:339-340, 392 (for the Trobrianders in Melanesia). Blackwood 1935:549, 552, 559 (18 of 177 recorded dreams were sexual, among the Melanesians of Bougainville). Havelock Ellis 1936(1,1):199 (for the Hindu and Papua). Devereux 1936:32, 57 (for the Mohave Indians). Gorer 1938:185 (for the Lepcha). Laubscher 1938:10 (for the Tembu in South Africa). DuBois 1944:45, 69—70 (for the Alor in Melanesia). Elwin 1947:480 (for the Muria in India). Ford and Beach 1951:165 (give no cases; state it is rare in anthropologic literature).

Because of the importance of this concept of a compensatory function served by nocturnal orgasms, we have gone to some pains to analyze the data on our total sample of 7789 females. From these analyses the following generalizations may be drawn:

1. Out of our total sample of 7789 females, including both Negro and white and both prison and non-prison cases, there are 1761 females who had dreamed at some time in their lives to the point of orgasm. However, only 251 of these cases, which is 14 per cent of all of those who had ever had nocturnal orgasms, seem to show a compensatory relationship between the dreams and the other outlets.

2. Such compensatory relationships seem to occur most frequently when other sexual outlets are drastically reduced or eliminated. When the female has not previously had nocturnal dreams, she may have them after the reduction of the other outlets. This was true in approximately 200 of our cases. When the female had previously had dreams, the frequencies may increase when the normal outlets are eliminated or reduced. This may occur, for instance, when divorce or separation from a spouse eliminates the coital sources on which the individual has been chiefly dependent (p. 536). Clear-cut cases also occur when a woman is committed to prison, which in most instances is synonymous with depriving her of the opportunity to have any regular sexual outlet. Out of our 208 prison cases of females who had ever in their lives had sex dreams to orgasm, 140 (68 per cent) showed marked changes in the incidences or frequencies of nocturnal sex dreams to orgasm after commitment to the penal institution. The specific data are as follows:

  Percent
Nocturnal sex dreams only while in prison 62
Nocturnal sex dreams began in prison, continued outside 6
Nocturnal sex dreams increased while in prison 23
Nocturnal sex dreams decreased or stopped in prison 9
Number of cases

140


3.    Nocturnal orgasms seemed to occur, or increased in frequency, when socio-sexual outlets (as opposed to solitary outlets) were reduced or proved inadequate. The specific cases include instances of dreams which began only when petting, coitus, or homosexual outlets were eliminated or materially reduced in frequency. There are instances of nocturnal orgasms occurring after petting, or after premarital or marital coitus which had failed to bring the female to orgasm. Such cases, however, are not sufficiently frequent to warrant any statistical treatment here.

4.    In nearly every instance the compensatory nature of the nocturnal dreams seemed quite inadequate. The increase in the frequencies of the nocturnal orgasms is usually not more than a few per year, although the outlets for which they were supposed to be compensating may have averaged several times per week.

5.    In contrast to this group of cases in which the nocturnal experience seems to serve a compensatory function, there are some 117 cases (7 per cent of the 1761 females who had ever experienced nocturnal orgasms) in which the nocturnal orgasms seemed to correlate positively with the occurrence of other sexual outlets. Nocturnal dreams seem to have occurred only when these individuals were most often involved in other types of sexual activity, or the dreams increased under such conditions. Instances of this are to be seen in the fact that the married females (in the same age groups) have higher rates of dreams than the single females.

6.    For 183 females (10 per cent of the 1761 females who had ever experienced nocturnal orgasms), the nocturnal orgasms started in the same year that one or more of the other types of sexual activity had begun.

% of
females
Nocturnal dreams began when masturbation began 33
Nocturnal dreams began when petting began 34
Nocturnal dreams began when coitus began 48
Nocturnal dreams began when homosexual contacts began 8
Number of cases

183


7.    In some instances nocturnal orgasms were superimposed on what would seem to have been quite adequate or even high rates of outlet. The most extreme instance was that of a female whose nocturnal orgasms were averaging twice a week, although (because of her ability in multiple orgasm) she was having an average outlet of nearly 70 orgasms per week.

8.    In a portion of the cases, there seems to be a positive correlation between high levels of erotic responsiveness and the frequencies of nocturnal dreams to orgasm. For the 74 females in the sample whose nocturnal dreams had averaged at least once a week for at least five consecutive years, the record shows the following:

% with
nocturnal
orgasms

Erotic responsiveness

Above average 58
Average 30
Below average 12

Orgasmic response in coitus

100% of contacts89
With multiple orgasm (1.5 to 10 times each) 39

That 89 per cent of those with the highest dream frequency had reached orgasm regularly in their coitus, strikingly contrasts with the fact that not more than 47 per cent in any group of married females had ever reached orgasm one hundred per cent of the time, even after twenty years of marriage (Table 112). That 39 per cent of those who had most frequently dreamed, experienced multiple orgasm in coitus, similarly contrasts with the fact that only 14 per cent of the total sample had regularly experienced multiple orgasm.

9.    There is some correlation between the occurrence of masturbation and nocturnal dreams. There is also some correlation between the occurrence of fantasies in masturbation and nocturnal dreams. The data are as follows:

% females
with sex
dreams		 % females
without
sex dreams

Masturbation in history

With fantasy in masturbation 35 19
Without fantasy in masturbation 18 13
Without masturbation in history 47 68
Number of cases 34231859

10.    There are some individuals whose histories seem to show both compensatory and positive relationships between their nocturnal dreams and their other sexual activities. For instance, there are persons whose dreams began in the same year that coitus began, but when the coital rate was considerably stepped up in marriage, the dreams completely stopped. There are also cases of individuals whose dreams began only when their outlet was considerably increased through marriage, but whose dreams increased in frequency when their husbands were away from home.

It is quite possible that the different factors responsible for nocturnal dreams may operate in diverse ways. It is conceivable that physiologic factors may be responsible for the inverse or negative relationships which we have found. On the other hand, the psychologic factors which affect nocturnal dreams would more often produce positive correlations. This is indicated by the fact that there are cases in which the sexual experience of the previous evening supplies the subject matter of the nocturnal dream, leading to a repetition in sleep of the orgasm which had been had before retiring.

11.    For 79 per cent of the 1761 females who had had sex dreams, there do not seem to be any obvious correlations between the occurrence or absence of nocturnal dreams and the magnitude of the total outlet. There are high rates of nocturnal dreams among females who have high rates of outlets from other sources, and similarly high rates of dreams among those who have very low rates of outlet from other sources. There are individuals representing every other level of outlet, who have never had any nocturnal dreams. There are even individuals who give evidence of high psychologic responsiveness in connection with their other sexual activities, who do not have nocturnal dreams. This means that a multiplicity of factors must, in the majority of instances, determine the occurrence or non-occurrence of such nocturnal dreams, and that no single factor or small group of factors may account for their occurrence or non-occurrence in a history. What the present data do seem to show may be summed up as follows:

Relation Between Nocturnal Dreams and Other Sexual Outlets Percent
Inverse or compensatory relationship 14
Positive or parallel relationship 7
No marked relationship (among females with dream experience) 79
Number of cases with nocturnal dreams

1761


Masturbation and nocturnal sex dreams to the point of orgasm are the activities which provide the best measure of a female’s intrinsic sexuality. All other types of sexual activity involve other persons—the partners in the sexual relations—and the frequencies and circumstances of such socio-sexual contacts often depend upon some compromise of the desires of the two partners. The frequencies of the female’s marital coitus, for instance, are often much higher than she would desire, and even those females who are most responsive in their sexual relations might not choose to have coitus as often as their spouses want it. Since other persons have a minimum effect upon the incidences and frequencies of masturbation and nocturnal sex dreams, these latter outlets provide a better measure of the basic interests and sexual capacities of the female.

Most males, projecting their own experience, take it for granted that females must similarly fantasy during their sexual activities. The male clinician, the male who writes in scientific, literary, and deliberately erotic literature, and most other males imagine that most females must be aroused as they would be in contemplating the possibilities of sexual activities. The male’s failure to comprehend the lesser importance of psychologic stimulation for the female, and her failure to comprehend the greater importance of psychologic stimulation for him, are prime sources of the difficulty which so many men and women have in understanding each other sexually.
 
Summary and Comparisons of Female and Male
Nocturnal Sex Dreams
  In Females In Males

Origins of Sex Dreams

Physical stimulation Yes Yes
Psychologic stimulation Yes Yes
Inhibitions lowered in sleep Sometimes More often
Dependent on glandular pressures No No evidence
Reflect neurotic disturbances Rarely Rarely
Evolutionary origin in lower mammals Very few data Few data
Evidence from primitive peoples Very few data Few data

Accumulative Incidence
Dreams with or without orgasm 70% Nearly 100%
Dreams with orgasm, by age 45 37% 83%
Dreams without orgasm 33% Less than 17%

Active Incidence to Orgasm
Range in various age groups 2-38% 28-81%
In any single year 10%? 40%?
Peak of activity In forties Teens-twenties

Frequencies (Active Median) to Orgasm
Average, younger ages 3-4 per year 4-11 per year
Average, older ages 3-4 per year 3-5 per year

Regular in 5-year periods
More than 5 per year 8% 48%
More than 2 per month 3% 14%
More than 1 per week 1% 5%
Range of variation Limited Much greater
Percentage of Total Outlet 2-3% 2-8%

Relation to Age and Marital Status

Active incidences (at age 40) to orgasm
Single 22%60%
Married 28%48%
Previously married 38% 54%
Frequency (active median) to orgasm No relation Highest in single

Percentage of total outlet
Single 2-4%5-12%
Married 1-3%3-5%
Previously married 4-14% 4-6%
Relation to Educational Level None Much more in college group
Relation to Parental Occupational Class None None
Relation to Decade of Birth None Some increase
Relation to Age at Onset of Adolescence None Little

Relation to Religious Backgrounds
Accumulative and active incidence Fewer of devout are involved Little relation
Frequency (active median) No relation No relation

Correlation with Other Sexual Outlets
Dreams compensatory In 14% In some cases
Rut inadequate as a compensation Yes Yes
Correlation with other sexual activity In 7% In some cases
Correlation with erotic responsiveness Yes 
Correlation between dreams
and masturbation		Some  
Correlation between dreams
and fantasies in masturbation		 Some 

Content of Nocturnal Dreams
None recalled 1% 
Reflection of experience Usually Usually
Anticipated or desired experience Occasionally Sometimes


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