Some people have wet dreams (otherwise known as nocturnal emissions)1 all throughout their lives,2 and some people don’t ever have any.3 They occur naturally,4 and can, for example, be the result of conditions such as having a full bladder while sleeping;5 so, although they might be a bit annoying, nocturnal emissions aren’t anything we should be overly concerned about.
We can’t ultimately control what we dream about, or what our body does during sleep. However, our dreams are often the result of what our minds have been filled with during the time we are awake,6 so if we are feeding our minds on media or thoughts that arouse our sexual desires then those sexual desires are possibly going to resurface in our dreams, and could sometimes be the cause of nocturnal emissions.
So, nocturnal emissions are not sinful themselves, but they can be the result of sinful thoughts. Controlling our minds will help control our actions (Luke 6:45): controlling what is put into our heads during the day may not stop all nocturnal emissions (because some nocturnal emissions aren’t related to sexual thoughts), but it may well reduce them, and it should at least reduce the number of inappropriate thoughts that occur in our dreams.
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Notes
1. ‘nocturnal emission’, Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary, available online: http://bit.ly/bssvyK (accessed 26/04/10)
2. Dr David Delvin and Christine Webber, My wet dreams (Net Doctor), available online: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/sexandrelationships/sexualarousal/200386.html (accessed 09/08/08)*
3. Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS-Statistics Indonesia) and ORC Macro, Indonesia Young Adult Reproductive Health Survey 2002–2003 (Calverton, Maryland, USA: BPS-Statistics Indonesia and ORC Macro), p. 27, available online: http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR157/04Chapter04.pdf (accessed 09/08/08)
4. Dr Melissa Sayer, Wet dreams (BBC, 2007), available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/surgery/advice/body_mind/boys_bodies/wet_dreams (accessed 09/08/08)*
5. Wet Dreams (Livestrong, 2008), available online: http://www.livestrong.com/article/12464-wet-dreams (accessed 09/08/08)*
6. Eccl. 5:3; also, Geneviève Alain, et al, Replication of the Day-residue and Dream-lag Effect (Berkeley, California: ASD, 2003), available online: http://www.asdreams.org/2003/abstracts/genevieve_alain.htm (accessed 09/08/08)
*Care should be taken with these websites (and others, too, probably) because they come from a human point of view, and so they present some ungodly things as acceptable.
thanks