Lust, pornography, and erotic dreams

Abstract

This study examines the prevalence of men’s sexual behaviors, erotic dreams, and nocturnal emissions and the continuity between diurnal and nocturnal sexuality. On the strength of the findings generated from a survey of 306 young male adults, several important implications are highlighted. Pornography consumption and masturbation with ejaculation are almost universal habits for young men. The form of sexual acts that sleepers dream about reflects the type and incidence of their pornography use and sexual behaviors during wakefulness. Erotic dreams and nocturnal emissions appear to serve as complements to waking-life sexuality. The choice of sexual objects and interactions in the formation of dream images is neither random nor rational, but is egoistic in nature. The most common sexual object that men dream about is not their girlfriend but is their female classmate or acquaintance; receiving sex pleasure by means of the penis being manually or orally stimulated is more likely to happen than giving the parallel sex pleasure to the object in erotic dreams. Certain typical dreams, the manifest content of which does not present any erotic elements, are physiologically arousing to the extent that they can induce the expulsion of semen. In other words, activities commonly occurring in dreams—especially for those about the urgent need to empty one’s bladder and rummaging around for a toilet—can carry the same sexual connotations for men at the biological level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)