Talking During Sleep is Becoming a Problem

Alright, this is a problem I just heard talked about during my psychology class today when we were going over sleep and states of consciousness.

A girl in the class said that she used to sleepwalk when she was young, and now talks during her sleep so much and so loud that it's becoming a problem, waking her up. I've looked around the boards and have only found humourous stories of sleeptalking and sleepwalking episodes, but nothing on why it is done, or most importantly, how to stop it from happening when it gets out of control as it has for her.

Any insights?

When your body falls asleep, it initiates a temporary paralysis to keep you from thrashing around and injuring yourself during dream state. Or getting up and unconsciously stabbing your in-laws staying in the guest room. For whatever reason (it seems to vary amongst sleepwalkers) there are occasions when the body doesn't perfectly immobilize itself. It may be types of food consumed before bed, high stress levels, or even certain mental disorders that result in somnambulism. I, for one, apparently attack my boyfriend for fear that he's going to take my eyes out with a spoon:) Tell your friend to just try and de-stress before bed the best she can.

Thank you very much, up until now all I had ready to tell her next week is that she may be overly stressed. I'll bring this up when I talk to her again. Thanks again!

De nada:) Hope it helps.

High levels of fatigue is a definite issue with me. I talk more in my sleep the more tired I am. And I've only walked in my sleep (as far as I can recall) whenever I've gone way past the point of exhaustion before actually sleeping.
For example, I'll start talking in my sleep more (waking myself up) when I'm even just a few hours past my normal bedtime. Sleepwalking doesn't strike until I've stayed up for at least a couple of days.

For whatever reason, it's also more common to be active during sleep for adolescents. Speaking for myself, when I was in my pre-teen years I used to actually unlock the front door and walk down the street in the middle of the night. Luckily, that's something I grew out of before I got hit by a vehicle.

MissAbiotic is mostly wrong. REM atonia (the bodily paralysis) happens during REM sleep, to stop you from acting out your dreams. Sleep walking and sleep talking are occurring during SWS- stages 3 and 4, not REM. If someone has a problem with attacking people in their sleep, it's typically REM Behavior Disorder because they don't have REM atonia and act out their dreams, not someone sleepwalking. Those are mostly legal excuses and greatly exaggerated stories in bad tv shows. It's a very common misconception that sleep walking is people acting out their dreams.

I don't know anything about sleep-talking, but I suggest you recommend to her that she contact a sleep specialist rather than rely on the often incredibly shoddy advice available on the internet :(

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Originally Posted by Shift

MissAbiotic is mostly wrong. REM atonia (the bodily paralysis) happens during REM sleep, to stop you from acting out your dreams. Sleep walking and sleep talking are occurring during SWS- stages 3 and 4, not REM. If someone has a problem with attacking people in their sleep, it's typically REM Behavior Disorder because they don't have REM atonia and act out their dreams, not someone sleepwalking. Those are mostly legal excuses and greatly exaggerated stories in bad tv shows. It's a very common misconception that sleep walking is people acting out their dreams.

I don't know anything about sleep-talking, but I suggest you recommend to her that she contact a sleep specialist rather than rely on the often incredibly shoddy advice available on the internet :(

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Thank you for the input. The first thing anyone recommended to her was to see a sleep specialist. I figured by asking around the community I might be able to get an idea of what else could be done to help her out. My alternative to that was to do nothing, so naturally I posted.

To the best of my knowledge she will be seeing a specialist about it. Thanks for the feedback from everyone anyway. :)