KEY POINTS:
Just when documentary makers seem to have mined everything to do with sex, this turned up. It's "sexsomnia", the topic du noir of Sleep Sex, last night's documentary, 9.30pm on TV One. It is sex happening during sleep, with at least one of the participants not knowing what went on till morning. This makes it akin to drinking orange juice in a pub, the drink you have when you're not having a drink.
This should not be confused with indifference, a rather more familiar nocturnal state. It is closer to sleepwalking, something particularly affecting children and adolescents, who need more hours of "deep sleep", the state when sexsomnia problems are most likely to occur.
One couple's sleeping together had arrived at risking sex drifting close to outright rape. The makers followed the man's search for help to Edinburgh. In an unintentionally hilarious scene at a sleep clinic, he was attached to 19 different wires and sensors, put in a bed under a camera's eye, and told to enjoy a good night's sleep.
Fortunately, he did, and it led to his emerging with real hope. His diagnosis was an obstructed airway, causing disturbed sleep and unleashing his unexpected and unwanted behaviour. This could be managed by medication, with possible surgery to follow. Once this regime was established, a rekindled love flowered, complete with joyously happy frolics in the park.
While he lived at the darkest end of the problem, a Vancouver man was not far back. He passed out at a party and found himself having sex with a stranger. She went to the police. So did he. This began two grim years of waiting for his case to reach the court.
In a precedent-setting trial, he was acquitted. His subsequent treatment revolved around lifestyle. Start with avoiding severe fatigue and be careful around alcohol. Above all, he was to avoid combining these with sleep.
The third male didn't see a problem in any of this. He was not an attacker, and his sexsomnia manifested as extremely gentle. Already successful with women, his condition seemed to enhance his prospects of adding to a richly full sex life. He ended the show as he began, sanguine and cheerful.
The fourth subject found herself stranded in a bleak present and a worrying future. She had become progressively, and then relentlessly, onanistic. Her husband had long ceased viewing this as either a spectator or a participatory event and was fed up, making her fearful for a marriage she wanted to maintain.
It got worse.
There was no ready answer for her variation on the condition, leaving her still searching for help.
