Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Dyssomnia

Who uses it: Sleep physicians
What it means: Any of a range of sleep disorders that include the inability to fall asleep, midnight wakefulness, or waking up too early.
How you can use it: To describe your own sleep problems.

I'm prepared to admit that it's a strange and wonderful world we live in. I also know that people can do some strange things when they're asleep. I have been known to talk in my sleep and even, on rare occasion, to sleepwalk, and I once saw my mother set the kitchen up for breakfast in her sleep.

But this, ladies and gentlemen, is baloney.
Toronto, Dec. 4 (Reuters): Ontario plans to review a court decision that acquitted a man of sexual assault charges because he suffers from “sexsomnia” and was asleep at the time of the incident.

Luedecke, 33, has been acquitted of sexual assault charges because he said he was asleep during the attack. A sleep expert testified that Luedecke suffers from a disorder that causes sexsomnia — involuntary sexual behaviour during sleep — which he had experienced before.

The office of the attorney-general, which oversees the province’s prosecutions, said it needs to research its options for an appeal because of the strange circumstances of the case.

What this article does not mention is that Luedecke managed to find, unwrap, and put on a condom -- and then go into another room where the victim of the assault was sleeping -- all, allegedly, in his sleep. Right.

Anna, Jen and I are baking Christmas cookies this morning. I'm making little gingerbread corpses to take to Kate's holiday party on Friday.

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