This is why some people deliver a monologue during the night
A lot of people talk in their sleep. Whether is it just random words, full sentences or even a complete monologue; half of the population sometimes talks in their sleep. And that can be confusing for the people around who hear it. Have you ever heard your partner say something in their sleep that didn’t make sense at all? Find out why people sometimes talk in their sleep.
Sleep
Sleep talking, or somniloquy, is a type of parasomnia. And parasomnias are all the things we do in our sleep that we shouldn’t actually be doing in that moment. Like sleep walking, talking, moving, etc. When you sleep, you go through different stages. Like deep sleep or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. And during all of those stages, sleep talking can occur. Especially when your brain moves from one stage to another. And that means that whatever the person next to you is saying, might not have anything to do with what they’re dreaming about.
Causes
Then why do some people talk in their sleep? Apparently, experts don’t agree on a cause yet. But they did find that sleep talking often occurs in multiple members of one family. That makes it more likely that sleep talking is actually genetic. But it might also be related to certain mental health issues. Like with people who have experienced stressful and traumatic events and developed a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Or for people who have anxiety or depression.
But sleep talking does seem to serve a purpose: it could be a way to solidify your memories. When you sleep, your memories become more stable. Your brain looks through all of the things that happened that day and decides which ones are important and which ones are not. That is why you can sometimes wake up with the answer to a question that you’d been thinking about all day.
This means that when you sleep talk, you might be helping your brain remember all the important things that happened to you during the day. Even if what you say doesn’t seem to make any sense to the person sleeping next to you.
Also read: Does your partner snore? These are some tips to get rid of snoring
Source: The Sleep Doctor, NIH, Max Vandaag | Image: Pexels