Sleep talking is talking in your sleep without even knowing it. Sleep talking can involve complicated dialogues or monologues, complete gibberish or mumbling. Talking in your sleep is a disorder that can happen to anyone.
I talk in my sleep, and I think I speak complete gibberish and mumble. My college sophomore roommate told me every day, “You talked in your sleep last night.” She told me that I would whisper words and make noises. She always said “I was going to write it down, but I forgot.” But I think it might have been something really embarrassing so she didn’t want to tell me, but I always laughed.
Usually children from 3-10 talk in their sleep, there is only about 5 percent of adults who talk in their sleep, so I guess I’m in that 5 percent category. Boys and girls talk in their sleep an equal amount. Many experts suspect that sleep talking can run in the family.
Sleep talking is diagnosed by a doctor asking you to keep a sleeping journal to show how frequently your sleep talking happens. It would help if you have a sleep partner to go to the appointment with you so they can get a good understanding on how the doctor can diagnose you for sleep talking.
People think that sleep talking just happens while people are sleeping, but scientist say that it can occur at any time of sleep. Sleep talking is mostly harmless, it will not hurt anyone. Although in some cases, it can be a sign of a serious sleep disorder or a health condition.
There are two types of sleep disorder one is RBD sleep behavior and the other one is sleep terror, they both cause people to shout in their sleep. Sleep terror can also be called night terror is usually frightening screams, thrashing and kicking. It is hard to wake someone up that has night terror. RBD sleep is when someone shouts, grunts and that will act out their dreams.
Lots of studies have shown that most sleep talkers’ speech mostly gibberish, but some sleep talkers would confess such as them doing something wrong, although it shouldn’t be taken literally.
You don’t know if you are talking in your sleep, usually people will always tell you. Or someone would complain that the sleep talking is keeping them up at night. They will tell you that you shouted out something in the middle of the night.
There is no known way of to reduce talking in your sleep. Although avoiding stress and getting enough sleep will have less effect to talking in your sleep. Sleep psychologist Arthur Arkin suggest that sleep talkers remind themselves of seal swimming under water, surfacing for cordial, peremptory, or meditative bark and deftly resumberging.
National Sleep Foundation says that science and the law can both consider sleep talking not to be the product of conscious or rational mind.
I struggle with talking in my sleep and I probably will for the rest of my life.
