Sleep talking can also be associated with nightmares, especially in children. Sleep talking is also found to coexist with sleepwalking, teeth grinding, and nightmares. Some medications, such as antidepressants, are also found to cause sleep talking.
You might think that sleep talking occurs during dreaming. But scientists still are not sure if such chatter is linked to nighttime reveries. The talking can occur in any stage of sleep. Sleep talking usually occurs by itself and is most often harmless.
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.
Somniloquy is the scientific name for sleep talking, a sleep disorder that causes people to call out, speak, or produce incoherent language during sleep. Sleep talking is one of the more common sleep disorders and is more widespread among children and adolescents than adults.
Formally called somniloquy, sleep talking is considered harmless and does not typically require medical attention. If you are prone to talking in your sleep, you may speak in single words, full sentences, or gibberish. You will likely be unaware you're sleep talking unless someone else points it out to you.
Sexsomnia, also known as sleep sex, is a type of sleep disorder known as a parasomnia. Parasomnias refer to unusual sensations and behaviors, such as sleepwalking, that people may experience or exhibit while asleep, falling asleep, or waking up. In the case of sexsomnia, people engage in sexual behaviors.
“There's some evidence that, at times, sleep talking may be related to dreams, but this is not always the case,” Dr. Drerup explains. Most dreams happen when you're in the deep, rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep. But sleep talking can happen during any stage of sleep, including both REM and non-REM sleep.
As much as you'd like to think you're reciting the works of Wordsworth, most unconscious utterances are usually brief and nonsensical. If you manage to say complete sentences, this nocturnal natter may be harmless or you could blurt out your darkest secrets. However, such confessions shouldn't be taken seriously.
"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. View Source .
Catathrenia is a sleep behavior that's usually harmless but can wake up other people. It happens when someone is sleeping and moans and groans as they breathe out. It's different than snoring, which happens when someone inhales, or breathes in. A sleep specialist can help if you think you have catathrenia.
Night terrors are a sleep disorder in which a person quickly awakens from sleep in a terrified state. The cause is unknown but night terrors are often triggered by fever, lack of sleep or periods of emotional tension, stress or conflict.
Dreams and psychotic hallucinations do have things in common. They both feature perceptual sensations that seem real, but which are conjured up by our brains.
These are thought to occur due to your brain being partly in a dreaming state and in themselves are nothing to worry about. Normally, sleep hallucinations are visual, but they can also be auditory. 2 If you are hearing a voice or voices, they will usually be saying something brief, such as your name.
People can say all sorts of strange things in their sleep, but a new study suggests that someone in the middle of a vivid dream can understand questions — and even answer them.
While it's true that during some sleep stages our brains pay very little attention to what's happening around us, during other stages we're able to hear and process sounds even in our sleep. Not only that, but we are listening for certain sounds while we sleep, even when we're in deep sleep.
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.
Night terrors and nightmares are different and happen at different stages of sleep. During a night terror you may talk and move about but are asleep. It's rare to remember having a night terror. Nightmares are bad dreams you wake up from and can remember.
Night terrors are rare in adults, yet many who experience them have other mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety. 3 In these episodes, people may abruptly sit up in bed, sometimes screaming or thrashing around in fear.
It is very difficult to wake someone during stages 3 and 4, which together are called deep sleep. There is no eye movement or muscle activity. People awakened during deep sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up.