Ever since I have been able to talk, I have talked in my sleep. Almost every night I mumble something, sometimes even waking myself up. Now that I have a roommate, my sleep talking has started to be a problem. Almost every night I wake her up with the sound of me trying to start a conversation or mumbling pointless words that I usually won’t remember in the morning. College kids need their sleep, so I feel like it is my responsibility to figure out how to stop sleep talking in order to allow my poor roommate to be able to function in the morning.
To be able to figure out a remedy, I first need to figure out the actual science behind sleep talking. There are five stages of sleep: 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM. Each cycle is a lighter sleep than the next, REM being the deepest sleep out of the five. Sleep talking usually occurs during the second stage and REM stages of sleep. It is easier to get someone to stop talking during the REM stage than the second stage, which is surprising to me because the REM stage is a deeper sleep.
According to U.S. News, causes of sleep talking could be a serious sleep disorder, or simply stress, depression, or alcohol use. For me, the cause of my sleep talking is most likely stress. I also found it interesting to see that sleep talking may run in families. My mother, aunt, and cousin all do it, and we have had full conversations with each other in our sleep.
So how can I stop it? Some sources recommend seeing a doctor, especially if your sleep talking involves screaming or violent actions. Luckily, mine does not. Because mine is not as severe, sources say just to try to lower stress and watch how much caffeine your are consuming throughout the day. I feel like more studies need to be done about sleep talking, because there doesn’t seem to be a solid conclusion to explain why this happens to me so often.
this phenomenon also works with deaf people who use sign language as their main way of communicating. My mom is hard of hearing, so she is fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). Sometimes when she is in deep sleep, she will actually have sign language conversations in her sleep. And the sign language is clear and easy to understand. Also, my roommate sometimes talks in his sleep. When he does it, the things he says are unclear and sound like gibberish. its weird to see the differences of communicating while you are sleeping.
I am the same way in that I talk in my sleep. I’m not sure if I still do it (my roommate hasn’t said anything…yet) but I find it interesting that there are stages in the process. I also find the causes to be interesting because the majority of my sleep talking occurred when I was very young and stress-free (the only cause that I really think would be applicable to me). Great post!
This topic is extremely interesting to me considering I too am guilty of sleep talking. It would be interesting to see you go more in depth with how sleep talking may be caused by stress, depression and alcohol use. Another way to expand on this blog post would be to also further your statement on how sleep talking may be hereditary. I disagree with when you said sleep talking occurs. I researched it a little more to learn more about sleep talking and found in this article that sleep talking occurs “during momentary overlapping states of consciousness.” That being said, since there is a discrepancy it may be beneficial for more research and studies to be done on this topic.
http://zenas-psych17n.blogspot.com/2007/12/17-dreaming-in-another-language.html
Reading your post made the language nerd in my head take over, especially since this has been a hot-debated topic in the language and linguistics community for a long time. Is there any way you can test which sources of your brain result in producing sleep talking, and if memories are directly related to what words are being spoken? I’m wondering if there is, because some argue that frequently being exposed to other languages during the REM cycle of sleep means that language acquisition is rapidly approving in a more profound way. However, if talking in your sleep is genetically linked, and the language in which you speak in your sleep (if you speak more than one) depends on which part of your brain is active during sleep, could there be some way of determining the effect of language on the subconscious while sleeping? I’ve been told I randomly throw out words in different languages, mumbling occasionally in my sleep. I think stress and before-bed habits could be better analyzed as well, especially since things like university habits exist where snacks, coffee and energy drinks are common in the late hours getting work done and then getting to bed right after.