Just How Often Do Women Have Wet Dreams?

The answer might surprise you.

The female orgasm is a powerful, mysterious thing. Here at Maxim, we’ve busted myths about the lady O, given you tips on how to make her come, and introduced you to a potentially orgasm-inducing mushroom. We’ve even carried out a comprehensive investigation of women who orgasm on theme park rides.

Quite frankly, it’s been a busy year. But one stimulating area of study has been left largely under-reported, and that is the female equivalent of the nocturnal emission: a wet dream of her own. Just like Virgina Woolf always dreamed of, women, too, can get a big finish mid REM cycle. In a recent article, Broadly explores women who have “sleep orgasms,” and uncovered some surprising data on just how often this happens. Though the research is a bit old, The Journal of Sex Research published a study from 1986 stating that by the time they turned 21, 85% of women had a “nocturnal orgasm.”

But if you’re not one of those lucky ladies and you desperately want to get off while you catch Zs, Broadly recommends waiting until you have a sex drought: “The drought can be a few days, a few weeks, however long it takes to make you think, ‘Uh, I haven’t come in a while’—anything to plant that seed in your mind. Second, you have to be lying on your front. I know, I know, there are books that say it’s not about genital stimulation, but it doesn’t hurt to have something pressing on there, right?” the author, who personally experiences wet dreams with frequency, writes.

So there you have it. Go forth, wash your sheets frequently, and have fun.

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