Is It Normal to Have Wet Dreams as an Adult?

It’s no secret that sex is on men’s minds all the time. In fact, The Journal of Sex Research discovered that, on average, men think about sex 19 times a day—that’s more than once every waking hour.

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But the X-rated fantasies don’t stop there.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 8% of your dreams are sex dreams. Fast forward a few hours and you might wake up with a sticky spot on your boxers. The official term for mid-sleep ejaculation is “nocturnal emission,” but you’re probably more familiar with the term wet dream.

Wet dreams are a totally normal part of being a dude, but they’re also mysterious, not to mention messy. Coming up, we’ll explain why you ejaculate beneath the sheets, what that says about your sexual health, and how you can keep your wet dreams under control.

What Causes Wet Dreams?

Fun fact: you spend about 25% of the night with an erection (that explains morning wood). This is because your testosterone production increases during REM sleep. As you can imagine, a raging REM boner mixed with an erotic dream and some dry humping is a recipe for increased blood flow downstairs and a soon to be sticky situation.

Wet dreams aren’t always about sexual arousal, though.

“For men, nocturnal emissions are a way for the body to clear out old sperm,” says sex researcher David Ley. “Sperm has an expiration date, and if you haven’t ejaculated in a while, your body gets rid of the old stuff to ensure the sperm on tap is fresh and ready to hit the field of play.”

You probably noticed your first wet dream as a pimple-faced teenage boy with raging male hormones. In fact, it’s estimated that 13% of males experience their first orgasm in the form of nocturnal emission. But is this supposed to continue into adulthood?

Is It Normal for Adults to Have Wet Dreams?

In the U.S., 83% of men experience nocturnal emissions at some time in their life. However, they usually occur less frequently with age. Here’s a quick breakdown of the average frequency of wet dreams, as reported in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male: 

• 15-year-old single males: once every three weeks
• 20-year-old married males: once per month
• 40-year-old single males: once every six weeks
• 50-year-old married males: once every two months

Bottom line: adults still have wet dreams, just not as many as teenagers hyped up on male hormones.

There also may be a link between how often you masturbate and how often you have wet dreams. Going days or weeks without sexual activity is a surefire way to wake up with wet undies.

Can You Prevent Wet Dreams?

It’s understandable that you’d want to build up your load for a fun occasion instead of squandering it while you snooze. But is it possible to stop your sleep orgasms?

Achieving orgasms regularly (2-3 times a week) may reduce your body’s need to release old sperm. Some dudes claim sleeping on your stomach makes you more likely to have wet dreams, although there’s no guarantee sleeping on your back will make any difference.

Let’s face it, sometimes Mother Nature is going to have her way with you while you sleep. The best you can do is keep the mess to a minimum, especially if you’re sleeping in enemy territory. For starters, you can stop sleeping naked. In the aftermath of a nighttime nut, washing underwear is way easier than washing all of your bedsheets.

And please, for the love of humanity, shower after you wake up from a wet dream.