For boys, first ejaculation during sleep usually occurs a year or more after ejaculation would have been possible by other means (Kinsey, 1948, p. 243). The onset of nocturnal emissions can be an awesome experience for the adolescent who has no prior awareness of this phenomenon. No one had told me about this, and I did not begin to fully understand until we boys figured it out-no parental advice.2 This was something I was completely unprepared for. This erection and ejaculation without any physical stimulation was difficult to understand.
Dream content accompanying nocturnal emissions varies with the prior
2 All cases used throughout the book are actual case histories from the author's files
unless otherwise identified. Editing has been done only to the extent that it was
necessary to safeguard the identity of the individuals involved. Cases are used to
illustrate rather than to prove a point.
experience of the boy. He may dream about sexual encounters that he has experienced
either vicariously or directly.
When I was thirteen, one night I had an unusual dream. The dream
was sort of pleasant, but when I woke up the next morning, my
pajamas were all sticky, and there was a spot on my sheet. In about
a week the same thing happened again. These dreams were always
about the same thing: making love or 'playing around' with girls. In
dreams the girl and I would be in the same position as the people in
the pornographic comic books my friend and I found in his garage.
I dream regularly of having sexual intercourse. I have done this
since the first time I had intercourse early in adolescence.
A high percentage of all males experience nocturnal emissions at some time in
their lives. Ultimately, over 80 percent have this experience (Kinsey, 1948, p. 519).
Nocturnal emissions increase, decrease, or remain the same as the frequencies of
other sources of sexual outlet are developed, terminated, or altered (Ramsey, 1943).
My basketball coach suggested that I take wheat germ tablets after
a cold. My ability in basketball did not increase but the incidence of
nocturnal emissions did.
After I started to masturbate, I noticed that I had very few wet
dreams, so I decided that it was more enjoyable and less messy to
masturbate than to have wet dreams.
I took a renewed interest in studying and quit dating completely; I
had nocturnal emissions frequently.
Ramsey found in a middle-class sample of adolescent boys that the average
frequency of nocturnal emissions for those experiencing the phenomenon was slightly
less than two per month. The range in frequency for the group was from a single
experience in a whole history to 4.5 times a week, and a maximum of 13 times in any
single week.
Nocturnal sexual feelings are less common among adolescent girls than among
adolescent boys, but they do occur.
I have found that my thoughts are more preoccupied with the
opposite sex in the time between my periods (about the 15th and
20th days). I often have strong sex-colored dreams during that time.
I became infatuated with a boy who was my age (about sophomore
year in high school). I'd have wet dreams about him, often waking
in the middle of an orgasm. At first these dreams brought feelings
of guilt. and I fought them many nights, but finally gave in.
Thinking of this young man was a fine, sexually-full feeling.