Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSymptomsCausesSleep Talking vs. DreamingWhen to See a ProviderDiagnosisTreatment
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Symptoms
Causes
Sleep Talking vs. Dreaming
When to See a Provider
Diagnosis
Treatment
This article will explain what sleep talking is, why it happens, and when to see your healthcare provider about it.
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Types of Sleep Disorders
Symptoms of Sleep Talking
Sleep talking can vary from senseless babbling, shouting, or laughing to speech that a person would use while they are awake. Sleep talkers can appear to be talking to themselves or carrying on a conversation with someone else.
What characterizes sleep talking is that the episodes are not remembered when the sleep talker awakens. Unless someone else overhears them, the condition will go unrecognized.
Sleep talking can be incidental, occurring when a person is sleep-deprived or intoxicated. For others, it can be a chronic (persistent) condition during which they sleep talk several times a week or even nightly.
Sleep talkers generally do not talk for longer than nine seconds at a time, and often far less.The content is usually harmless and incomprehensible but can sometimes be graphic and alarming, laden with profanity or verbal abuse.
Most Common Sleep Disorders
What Causes Sleep Talking?
Sleep talking is a type ofparasomnia, meaning something that only happens during sleep. It can occur on its own or with other types of parasomnias, such assleepwalking,night terrors,sleep eating,sleep paralysis, andsexsomnia.
Although it’s not always clear what causes parasomnias, they are thought to be linked to a condition—often emotional but sometimes physical—that triggers strong feelings. This not only includes anxiety and fear but also things like happiness or sexual arousal.
Certain things can trigger sleep talking, including:
Sleep talking can also run in families, suggesting there may be a genetic component.
How Common Is Sleep Talking?Studies suggest that only around 5% of adults are sleep talkers. Even so, half of all children are thought to talk in their sleep, while around 66% of people have talked in their sleep at some point in their lives.
How Common Is Sleep Talking?
Studies suggest that only around 5% of adults are sleep talkers. Even so, half of all children are thought to talk in their sleep, while around 66% of people have talked in their sleep at some point in their lives.
What Is Paradoxical Sleep?
Sleep talking is not exactly the same thing as acting out a dream. The latter occurs during a specific stage of sleep, calledREM sleep, while sleep talking infers speech that occurs during any of thefour stages of sleep.
Dream talking can also occur with a type of parasomnia known asREM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). With RBD, a person will enact a dream, particularly those that are frightening, both physically and verbally,
When to See a Healthcare Provider
Sleep talking isn’t usually a problem until it interferes with the sleep of your partner. If it is affecting your relationship or your partner is worried about your sleep talking, speak with your provider or ask for a referral to a sleep specialist known as asomnologist.
You should also make an appointment if you’ve never talked in your sleep before but suddenly start doing it as an adult. In cases like this, sleep talking may be a sign of an underlying health problem.
Sleep talking is known to accompany certain medical conditions, including:
All of these conditions are serious and require medical attention. In some cases, sleep talking may be the first or only sign of an underlying health condition. This is why sleep taking shouldn’t be considered “harmless” if the symptoms are persistent, worsening, or severe.
Link Between Mental Health and Sleep Disorders
Diagnosis of Sleep Talking
Sleep talking can occur on its own or be a feature of another sleep disorder.If your symptoms are problematic or disruptive, your healthcare provider may recommend keeping a sleep journal and/or undergoing a sleep study.
Sleep Journal
This information may help your provider identify the cause of your sleep-talking and offer tips to help relieve your symptoms.
There are also apps and wearable trackers that can help you monitor your sleep.
Sleep Studies
Asleep study, also known as apolysomnogram, involves a sleep specialist team who monitors you while you sleep. The test is done in a sleep lab where you are fitted with probes that track your brain waves, respiratory rate, heart rate, and body temperature while you sleep. The session is videotaped in sync with these vital signs.
The information from a sleep study can help detect common conditions like sleep apnea or better characterize the nature of your symptoms. Even if the test does not show you sleep-talking, it can still be useful because it may help rule out other sleep disorders.
How to Prepare for a Sleep Study
How Sleep Talking Is Treated
Sleep talking usually doesn’t need to be treated. However, it can be part of another condition that does need treatment
By way of example:
If sleep talking is bothering a bed partner, awhite noise machineor noise-blocking earplugs or headphones may help.
13 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Arnulf I, Uguccioni G, Gay F, et al.What does the sleeping brain say? Syntax and semantics of sleep talking in healthy subjects and in parasomnia patients.Sleep. 2017;40(11). doi:10.1093/sleep/zsx159American Academy of Sleep Medicine.What is sleep talking?Sleep Foundation.Sleep talking.Singh S, Kaur H, Singh S, Khawaja I.Parasomnias: a comprehensive review.Cureus. 2018;10(12):e3807. doi:10.7759/cureus.3807Mysliwiec V, O’Reilly B, Polchinski J, Kwon HP, Germain A, Roth BJ.Trauma associated sleep disorder: A proposed parasomnia encompassing disruptive nocturnal behaviors, nightmares, and REM without atonia in trauma survivors.J Clin Sleep Med. 2014;10(10):1143–1148. doi:10.5664/jcsm.4120Sleep Foundation.REM sleep behavior disorder.Hu MT.REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD).Neurobiology of Disease. 2020;143:104996. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2020.104996Honda K, Hashimoto M, Yatabe Y, et al.The usefulness of monitoring sleep talking for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.Int Psychogeriatr. 2013;25(5):851-858. doi:10.1017/S1041610213000185Postuma RB, Iranzo A, Hu M, et al.Risk and predictors of dementia and Parkinsonism in idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder: a multicentre study.Brain. 2019;142(3):744-59. doi:10.1093/brain/awz030Morkous SS.A 10-year-old with frequent, disruptive, and unexplained night awakenings.Cureus.2020 Dec;12(12):e11893. doi:10.7759/cureus.11893Lundetrae RS, Saxvig IW, Palesen S, Aurlien H, Lehmann S, Bjorvatn B.Prevalence of parasomnias in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. A registry-based cross-sectional study.Front Psychol.2018;9:1140. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01140American Sleep Association.Sleep disorders – ICD-10 codes and names.Sleep Foundation.Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
13 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Arnulf I, Uguccioni G, Gay F, et al.What does the sleeping brain say? Syntax and semantics of sleep talking in healthy subjects and in parasomnia patients.Sleep. 2017;40(11). doi:10.1093/sleep/zsx159American Academy of Sleep Medicine.What is sleep talking?Sleep Foundation.Sleep talking.Singh S, Kaur H, Singh S, Khawaja I.Parasomnias: a comprehensive review.Cureus. 2018;10(12):e3807. doi:10.7759/cureus.3807Mysliwiec V, O’Reilly B, Polchinski J, Kwon HP, Germain A, Roth BJ.Trauma associated sleep disorder: A proposed parasomnia encompassing disruptive nocturnal behaviors, nightmares, and REM without atonia in trauma survivors.J Clin Sleep Med. 2014;10(10):1143–1148. doi:10.5664/jcsm.4120Sleep Foundation.REM sleep behavior disorder.Hu MT.REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD).Neurobiology of Disease. 2020;143:104996. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2020.104996Honda K, Hashimoto M, Yatabe Y, et al.The usefulness of monitoring sleep talking for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.Int Psychogeriatr. 2013;25(5):851-858. doi:10.1017/S1041610213000185Postuma RB, Iranzo A, Hu M, et al.Risk and predictors of dementia and Parkinsonism in idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder: a multicentre study.Brain. 2019;142(3):744-59. doi:10.1093/brain/awz030Morkous SS.A 10-year-old with frequent, disruptive, and unexplained night awakenings.Cureus.2020 Dec;12(12):e11893. doi:10.7759/cureus.11893Lundetrae RS, Saxvig IW, Palesen S, Aurlien H, Lehmann S, Bjorvatn B.Prevalence of parasomnias in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. A registry-based cross-sectional study.Front Psychol.2018;9:1140. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01140American Sleep Association.Sleep disorders – ICD-10 codes and names.Sleep Foundation.Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Arnulf I, Uguccioni G, Gay F, et al.What does the sleeping brain say? Syntax and semantics of sleep talking in healthy subjects and in parasomnia patients.Sleep. 2017;40(11). doi:10.1093/sleep/zsx159American Academy of Sleep Medicine.What is sleep talking?Sleep Foundation.Sleep talking.Singh S, Kaur H, Singh S, Khawaja I.Parasomnias: a comprehensive review.Cureus. 2018;10(12):e3807. doi:10.7759/cureus.3807Mysliwiec V, O’Reilly B, Polchinski J, Kwon HP, Germain A, Roth BJ.Trauma associated sleep disorder: A proposed parasomnia encompassing disruptive nocturnal behaviors, nightmares, and REM without atonia in trauma survivors.J Clin Sleep Med. 2014;10(10):1143–1148. doi:10.5664/jcsm.4120Sleep Foundation.REM sleep behavior disorder.Hu MT.REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD).Neurobiology of Disease. 2020;143:104996. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2020.104996Honda K, Hashimoto M, Yatabe Y, et al.The usefulness of monitoring sleep talking for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.Int Psychogeriatr. 2013;25(5):851-858. doi:10.1017/S1041610213000185Postuma RB, Iranzo A, Hu M, et al.Risk and predictors of dementia and Parkinsonism in idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder: a multicentre study.Brain. 2019;142(3):744-59. doi:10.1093/brain/awz030Morkous SS.A 10-year-old with frequent, disruptive, and unexplained night awakenings.Cureus.2020 Dec;12(12):e11893. doi:10.7759/cureus.11893Lundetrae RS, Saxvig IW, Palesen S, Aurlien H, Lehmann S, Bjorvatn B.Prevalence of parasomnias in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. A registry-based cross-sectional study.Front Psychol.2018;9:1140. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01140American Sleep Association.Sleep disorders – ICD-10 codes and names.Sleep Foundation.Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
Arnulf I, Uguccioni G, Gay F, et al.What does the sleeping brain say? Syntax and semantics of sleep talking in healthy subjects and in parasomnia patients.Sleep. 2017;40(11). doi:10.1093/sleep/zsx159
American Academy of Sleep Medicine.What is sleep talking?
Sleep Foundation.Sleep talking.
Singh S, Kaur H, Singh S, Khawaja I.Parasomnias: a comprehensive review.Cureus. 2018;10(12):e3807. doi:10.7759/cureus.3807
Mysliwiec V, O’Reilly B, Polchinski J, Kwon HP, Germain A, Roth BJ.Trauma associated sleep disorder: A proposed parasomnia encompassing disruptive nocturnal behaviors, nightmares, and REM without atonia in trauma survivors.J Clin Sleep Med. 2014;10(10):1143–1148. doi:10.5664/jcsm.4120
Sleep Foundation.REM sleep behavior disorder.
Hu MT.REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD).Neurobiology of Disease. 2020;143:104996. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2020.104996
Honda K, Hashimoto M, Yatabe Y, et al.The usefulness of monitoring sleep talking for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.Int Psychogeriatr. 2013;25(5):851-858. doi:10.1017/S1041610213000185
Postuma RB, Iranzo A, Hu M, et al.Risk and predictors of dementia and Parkinsonism in idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder: a multicentre study.Brain. 2019;142(3):744-59. doi:10.1093/brain/awz030
Morkous SS.A 10-year-old with frequent, disruptive, and unexplained night awakenings.Cureus.2020 Dec;12(12):e11893. doi:10.7759/cureus.11893
Lundetrae RS, Saxvig IW, Palesen S, Aurlien H, Lehmann S, Bjorvatn B.Prevalence of parasomnias in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. A registry-based cross-sectional study.Front Psychol.2018;9:1140. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01140
American Sleep Association.Sleep disorders – ICD-10 codes and names.
Sleep Foundation.Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
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