Sleep talking usually occurs by itself and is most often harmless. However, in some cases, it might be a sign of a more serious sleep disorder or health condition. REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and sleep terrors are two types of sleep disorders that cause some people to shout during sleep.
Sleep talking is predominantly seen in individuals with mental health issues or conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Sleep talking can also be associated with nightmares, especially in children.
This usually occurs in the lighter stages of Non-REM sleep (Stages 1 and 2) and usually sleepers have no memory of these vocalizations. The actual words or phrases have little to no truth, and usually occur when they are stressed, during times of fever, as a medication side effect or during disrupted sleep. '
The Sleep-Talking Brain
On the other hand, since non-REM sleep doesn't lead to paralysis, Barrett says sleep talking during this stage is thought to be caused by “partial awakenings” of brain regions involved in language production that can be picked up with electrodes on the scalp, called EEG.
Sleep talking appears to occur more often in people with mental health conditions. View Source . In particular, it is believed to occur most frequently in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Overall, though, most cases of sleep talking are not thought to be connected to mental illness.
Signs of Sleep Talking
Sleep talking is considered a parasomnia, which is a type of sleep disorder that involves abnormal behaviors or experiences that happen during sleep: The main symptom of somniloquy is talking during sleep without being aware of it.
Sleep talking (or somniloquy) can be considered as a part of a larger family of types of “sleep utterances,” such as mumbling, laughing, groaning, and whistling during sleep.
Although it's generally harmless, and often a bit humorous, what freaks people out the most about sleep talking is that they typically don't remember doing it when they wake up. Plus, the voices and language a person uses while sleep talking might be different from their typical speech habits.
And it turns out that the most common word said during sleep talk is 'no'. The study found that 24% of sleep talk was found to contain negative content, and 22% included 'nasty' language. Almost 10% of all sleep talk included swearing. Why so much negativity?
There's no clear meaning of the things people say during their sleep. They may appear to mean something else for us but absolutely mean nothing to a sleep talker. Sleep talking is as healthy as dreaming; it's not an indication of anything wrong or any sleep problems to worry about.
In general, the three subtypes were associated with increased rates of sleep problems/disorders. Specifically, ADHD-C rather than ADHD-I was associated with circadian rhythm problems, sleep-talking, nightmares (also ADHD-HI), and ADHD-I was associated with hypersomnia.
"When someone is sleepwalking, they're stuck between deep sleep and light sleep and if you try to wake them up, they will be very confused and disorientated," Professor Hiscock says.
The exact cause of nighttime groaning is unclear. Some experts hypothesize that the disorder is related to the neurons in the respiratory center of your brain. If these neurons are dysfunctional, they can trigger prolonged exhaling.
Laughing during sleep is a common occurrence. Researchers believe that the cause is typically laughing at a dream during rapid eye movement sleep, which is entirely harmless. In some cases, sleep laughing has links to sleep disorders. In rare cases, hypnogely can be a symptom of a neurological disorder.
Sleep talking or yelling.
It's commonly seen in certain types of dementia — especially Lewy body dementia (DLB LBD) and vascular dementia. [7] Dementia patients talking When people with dementia begin to talk in their sleep, it may indicate a REM sleep disorder or another health condition.
While sleep-talking and other sleep behaviors can be humorous or inconvenient, they also may predict serious diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease in the future.
That means any factor that's known to disrupt sleep – like stress or alcohol – could be a contributing factor to sleep talking. Though most cases of sleep talking aren't associated with other serious health issues, it's possible that it could be related to: Obstructive sleep apnea.
Somniloquy, commonly referred to as sleep-talking, is a parasomnia in which one speaks aloud while asleep. It can range from simple mumbling sounds to loud shouts or long, frequently inarticulate, speeches.
After a trauma, people may talk more in their sleep. Talking during sleep can affect bed partners. Feeling "on alert." People with PTSD may feel the need to be on guard, to protect themselves from danger.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): People with ADHD may talk excessively and interrupt frequently.
Approximately 50% of insomnia cases are related to depression, anxiety or psychological stress. Often the qualities of a person's insomnia and their other symptoms can be helpful in determining the role of mental illness in a person's inability to sleep.