Nocturnal Orgasms: Females' Perceptions of a “Normal” Sexual Experience

The purpose of this article is to provide data concerning a sparsely studied topic in the field of human sexuality: female nocturnal orgasms. The study utilized a series of self-report questionnaires completed by 245 female undergraduate and graduate students. No support was provided for the hypothesis that nocturnal orgasms and anxiety in females are related. Nocturnal orgasm experience was related to experiencing orgasms by other means, but not to virginity or sexual satisfaction. Among this sample, the circumstances under which nocturnal orgasms occur varied widely, and nocturnal orgasms were not common knowledge nor overwhelmingly accepted. The major conclusion from the study is that female nocturnal orgasms are not a deviant form of behavior and are deserving of further study.