Advice

Woken up to find a sticky wet patch in your bed? That'll be a wet dream. Find out what they are, what they mean and when they're most likely to happen, here...

Oooo sticky

Night loss, nightfall

Oooo sticky:

Quite. A wet dream is when a boy ejaculates semen in his sleep. Over 80% of men have one at some time. It's normal, unavoidable and totally natural.

The average teenager has four erections every night. And a wet dream, on average, every three weeks.

The first time

Most boys get their first ejaculation by masturbation. Only 13% get their first through a wet dream. Some men find they are less likely to have a wet dream if they masturbate the night before.

Wakey wakey

We may wake up from a wet dream or sleep through till we find a wet patch in the morning. If we wake up we may remember our dream. Don't freak out. It doesn't mean that we actually want to fool around with our headmistress. Dreams are not reality.

Something for the weekend

Wet dreams are more likely at the weekend. This is because we sleep for longer. So we get more Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. It is during REM sleep that we dream. More REM = more erections = more wet dreams.

You might want to have a foolproof plan in place for dealing with telltale stains on your bedsheets (now's the time to offer to help with the laundry).