Can you fart in your sleep?

Answer 1

Robin Williams and Matt Damon have a good laugh about this issue in the movie "Good Will Hunting." Williams' character relates that his late wife used to fart in her sleep. Probably not. She might have just been trying to irritate him... The sphincter muscles in your body are both voluntary and involuntary muscles (you have more than 40 of them). Think of them like the hatches and valves on a submarine: they keep the environment and functions of your body regulated. The blowhole of a whale is controlled by a sphincter muscle. In the esophagus of most mammals, the epiglottis seals off the lungs involuntarily whenever you take a sip of liquid or a bite of food to keep you from choking. In the anus, you have one of each kind. (In the urethra, you have one, a voluntary sphincter.) Ordinarily, the voluntary muscle is kept closed by the person's conscious will, sealing the body orifice. When you defecate, urinate, or fart, you relax the muscle, much like opening a valve or faucet. (When you die, the voluntary sphincters can relax, which is why you sometimes hear tales of dying people messing their pants.) So if farting is a voluntary act, you can't be completely asleep. Asking if you fart in your sleep is like asking "Do you defecate or urinate in your sleep?" Well, for most people, the answer is no. Medical conditions (uncontrolled reactions) and bedwetting (a conscious behavior) are exceptions to this rule. So farting in your sleep is not like drooling in your sleep. It's possible that people who appear to fart in their sleep are really in a dozing or drowsing state, not fully conscious and awake, but not fully asleep, either.