Has anyone ever told you a story about that you were caught in the act of sleep talking or even worst, sleepwalking? You might have felt embarrassed or maybe this wasn’t the first time. If you’re like me, you likely hear this just about every time you sleep in the same room as some one else. Have you ever wondered what causes this? Sleep talking is also known as somniloquy and it’s a type of parasomnia. A parasomnia is an abnormal behavior that takes place during sleep according to WebMD. This behavior occurs in about half of kids between the ages of 3-10 and about 5% of adults. As of right now, the cause of sleep talking is unknown. This behavior can be dangerous because it can be a symptom of a sleeping or mental disorder but most of the time, it’s a harmless behavior.
There are no known causes for sleep talking but it is believed that it can be induced by some medications, emotional stress, mental disorder, or substance abuse. There is little known at all about this. All that is known from studies is that it is most common in young children. This may be a part of the brain developing or it may have nothing to do with it. It is also a theory that people who commonly talk in their sleep after the age of 25. Sleep talking is quite different than a sleep terror. If you ever experienced a sleep terror, you know what I am talking about. They are very scary and there’s very little you can do. Sleep terror is also most common among younger children but it’s as far as the commonality, that’s all that’s similar.
Next time you experience someone sleep talking, there’s not much you can do. If it’s not a night terror, you might even want to consider having fun with it. There aren’t any known harms to this as far as we know. You might want to take a video while you talk to them and make a funny conversation out of it. Since sleep talkers don’t realize they sleep talk even when they wake up, it could be used as proof or just as a black mail.
I’ve been known to be a sleep talking and a sleep walker when I have very vivid dreams and it always made me wonder why I did it all the time when I was little. In my psych class we are starting to talk about sleep disorders and sleepwalking is a common one. In my class we talk about younger people sleepwalking, but this USA Today article talks about the adults that sleep walk: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-05-10/sleepwalking-depression-Neurology/54959430/1
It is really interesting how some people talk in their sleep and even walking. I do wonder what could cause it and it really would be frightening wonder what you said in your sleep.
I have never been a sleep talker, but I know a lot of people who do talk in their sleep and it always interests me. Although there are no known causes and cures for sleep talking, I am curious as if there are things to do to prevent it. According to the huffington post, there are four things to do the help battle sleep talking.
1. Get enough sleep
2. Manage stress
3. Avoid alchohol at night
4. skip late night snacks
I am also curious as to if sleep talking to related to sleep walking. Unlike sleep talking, sleep walking is based more off of genetics, whereas talking can happen to anyone. If you want to read more about the two, the link below is really helpful.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/sleep-talking-tips_n_1197493.html
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleepwalking-causes