(PS12-C70) Sexual Assault While Sleeping: Incidence, Context, and Directions for Sexual Assault Prevention Programs

Sexual assault is a global issue affecting millions of individuals worldwide. In the United States, approximately one in five women (21.3%) have been raped (attempted or completed) in their lifetimes, and 37% have experienced unwanted sexual contact (Smith et al. 2018). Because of this, increased research focus has been placed on sexual consent as a means of sexual assault prevention, particularly within established relationships. Data also suggest that sexual precedence (i.e., previous sexual contact between partners) is often utilized as a contextual cue for understanding and perceiving consent (Righi et al., 2019; Willis et al., 2021).

Despite the focus on consent education, there are a number of sexual assault criminal cases in which the sexual contact happened while the person is asleep. While the premise that unconscious people cannot consent seems self-evident, a critical empirical question remains as to whether one can sleep through the precursors, beginnings, or entirety of sexual acts.

This study is the first to examine sexual assault of a sleeping partner. Specifically, we examined (1) the extent to which individuals have experienced sexual touching while sleeping; (2) the contexts in which it occurred; and (3) the perceptions of acceptability/legality of such touching to determine additional directions for sexual assault prevention efforts.

We obtained multisite, cross-sectional data from undergraduate students (N=390; 78% female; MAge=19.17) who completed online measures examining sleep characteristics, sexual touching while sleeping, and the contexts in which this occurred. The results suggested that 32.6% had been woken up by a person touching them sexually, 11.3% completely slept through a sexual touching, and 8.2% had woken up to find their clothes had been removed. The most common sexual acts reported while sleeping were sexual touching of non-genitals, touching of genitals, and penile-vaginal penetration. Analyses demonstrated that soundness of sleep was not related to having ever experienced sexual touching while sleeping (²(2, N = 382) = 3.40, p = .06) or sleeping entirely through a sexual act (²(2, N = 381) = 0.06, p = .97).

The data supported the hypothesis that relationship context would be related to sexual touching. There were main effects for relationship type (F(364, 1) = 32.95, p < .001) and sexual precedence, (F(364, 1) = 105.83, p < .001) for ratings of acceptability of being awoken by sexual activity. There was also a significant interaction effect between sexual precedence and relationship type (F(364, 1) = 5.47, p = .02), indicating that the recency of the previous sexual activity mattered more in casual sexual relationships. Those in casual relationships with less sexual precedence reported significantly greater negative emotionality (i.e., anger, sadness) and less positive emotionality (i.e., calmness, sexual arousal).

Sleeping persons cannot consent, yet this study suggests that many individuals are experiencing sexual touching, particularly in relationships with sexual precedence. The data bespeak a need for continued nuance in sexual assault prevention/treatment programs, considering relationship context, sexual precedence, and common beliefs about sexual touching while sleeping.