Come on boys, relax; wet dreams are part of growing up

“I woke up in the middle of the night and realized something was wrong! At first, I thought I had pissed in my bed; there was this huge wet spot in my bed. I took off my t-shirt and wiped up as much as I could. In the morning I related to my dad what happened and he told me I had a ‘Wet Dream’,” says Ngoga, a confident teenage boy. Several times most Rwandan teenage boys are afraid to confide in their parents as they grow up, however, times have changed. More boys like Ngoga are open about speaking about their body changes so that others can learn from them. Wet dreams are part of the growing up process in males. A wet dream happens semen (the fluid containing sperm) is discharged while teenage boys are asleep. A wet dream occurs when boys have a sexually arousing dream during sleep, and the body releases semen through ejaculation. Starting between the ages of 10 and 12 years, males begin going through the process of puberty. During this stage, teenage boys start to produce sperm and gain the ability to ejaculate. It is at this time that most males experience wet dreams. You may have trouble remembering the dream or feel confused just after you have a wet dream. Some guys wake up because they feel like they are going to wet the bed. This is completely normal and there is nothing to be embarrassed about! Most people experience them at some point during puberty and even sometimes as adults. There is no reason to ever feel guilty about having a wet dream, they are subconscious and can not be easily controlled or manipulated. “My first wet dream got me confused and worried. My parents hadn’t told me anything about orgasms and ejaculations let alone wet dreams; I thought something was wrong with my body,” says Karara Ismail, a 23-year-old student at Kigali Institute of Education. Although some people have ideas about how to prevent wet dreams from occurring, there is no proven approach for this. While having to change your sheets or clean up afterward may be embarrassing or annoying, keep in mind that wet dreams are a normal part of body development. Therefore, if you are a young male and you are afraid of being ridiculed or teased because you had a wet dream, now you know there is nothing wrong with it: More than likely, those who teased you have experienced the same thing. Finally, if you have not had a wet dream, do not worry about that either. Not everybody has them, and some males do not experience one until later in life. What you need to know is that having a wet dream is normal and they do not signal a sexual abnormality or mean you are sexually deviant. martin.bishop18@yahoo.com