Medical Expert, Dr. Chinonso Egemba Is Busting The Myths Around Wet Dreams Experienced In Adolescents & Adulthood
A wet dream is also known as a nocturnal emission. Nocturnal means “at night” and emission means “discharge.”
This makes sense because a wet dream is when semen (the fluid containing sperm) is discharged from the penis during ejaculation while a guy’s asleep.
Usually this happens during dreams that have sexual images. Sometimes guys wake up from a wet dream, but sometimes they sleep through it.
Wet dreams begin during puberty when the body starts making more testosterone, the major male hormone.
Although some adolescents may feel embarrassed or even guilty about having wet dreams, they can’t be controlled and you can’t stop them from happening — most guys experience them at some point during puberty and even sometimes as adults.
Wet dreams usually happen less as guys get older, though. In Africa, most people have tagged wet dreams as a spiritual attack that needs to be tackled spiritually.
Addressing this belief, a medical expert, Dr. Chinonso Egemba, says that ‘Wet Dreams’, experienced in adolescents or adulthood is not a disease or “Spiritual attack”.
Egemba, who is popularly known as ‘Aproko Doctor’, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN that there is the need to correct such perceptions to reduce the anxiety associated with having wet dreams.
He described wet dreams as nocturnal emission which occurs mostly in adolescents or adults usually while sleeping because of a dream which may or may not be sexual.
According to him, women can also have wet dreams, but men are more prone to having it and it may or not result in a discharge as it does in men.
“You do not have to be sleeping with a “spirit husband or spirit wife” according to some religious beliefs in this part of the world.
“Wet dreams are common during puberty and adolescence, this can be as a result of hormonal changes that occur during this time.
“As a person gets older, the hormone levels become more stable hence the frequency of wet dreams tend to drop as one gets older.
“We need to understand that wet dreams are a normal part of life. This will help you reduce the anxiety associated with having wet dreams,”
he said.
Egemba said there was no proven cause of wet dreams.
“You can have a wet dream without dreaming about sexual activity and sometimes become aroused sexually due to stimulation from friction with the beddings. Some studies say that lying on your stomach can spark wet dreams. This has not been proven too,”
he added.
The physician also said that wet dreams are a normal event in life and not symptoms of sickness or a sexually transmitted disease.
According to him, not everyone will have wet dreams, some people never experience it throughout their lives and they are perfectly normal.
“Speaking to a psychologist might help. Nocturnal emissions are purely normal and do not imply that something is wrong with you.
“Understanding this helps you live with it. You might experience some embarrassment, other than that, it is perfectly normal.
“Live your normal life, nothing is wrong with you. You are not possessed by a demon or married in another realm,”
he further stated.