Talking in Your Sleep

If people tell you that you are talking in your sleep, you may be suffering from a parasomnia, a type of sleep arousal issue that occurs on a regular basis.

With sleep talking, the individual is usually unaware he or she is making sounds while asleep. The sounds may be entire words and sentences, mumbling, gibberish, or a complete conversation.

If people tell you that you are talking while you are asleep, you may be suffering from a parasomnia, a type of sleep arousal issue that occurs on a regular basis.

With sleep talking, the individual is usually unaware he or she is making sounds while asleep. The sounds may be entire words and sentences, mumbling, gibberish, or a complete conversation.

Any conversations that take place when someone is asleep may be incoherent and/or relate to circumstances that happened in the past or present.

People who are overly tired may experience these symptoms, and some medications may cause them as well. Additionally, some health issues may add to this problem. For example, depression, stress, fever, and alcohol use may also cause sleep talking.

Sleep talking sometimes runs in families and it may be present in tandem with other sleep disorders, such as night terrors and sleep apnea. While sleep talking itself is not harmful, it may be disruptive to your sleep partner. The utterances may also cause embarrassment.

This disorder has been found in all stages of sleep, but mutterings of full words and sentences are found more frequently in sleep stages 1 and 2. During other stages of sleep, the talking is more likely to be unintelligible or sound like gibberish.

If you think you may be sleep talking on a regular basis, make an appointment with your doctor to have a check up. This will help rule out the possibility of a problem with medication or other health.

If those issues are ruled out, you should evaluate your sleep habits and see what improvements can be made to help you get more restful sleep.

Often, talking in your sleep does not require treatment other than better quality sleep. To achieve this, follow a regular sleeping schedule, get the right amount of sleep, make sure you are comfortable at night, and eat a proper diet.

Keeping a sleep diary is also helpful. Use this journal to record the things you eat, your medications, your activities, and how sleepy you are at various times of day.

After several days, review your records to see how much sleep you are receiving and how tired you are. This will provide indications of what you need to adjust to get a more healthy, adequate night's sleep.