Sleep talking is surprisingly common. Figures from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health suggest that it affects around 66 percent of adults at some point in their lives.
The technical name for sleep talking is somniloquy, which comes from the Latin words “somnus” for sleep and “loqui” for speak. Healthcare professionals do not consider it a medical condition. However, studies suggest that those who have been through traumatic experiences are more likely to experience it.
The majority of sleep talking involves simple babbling or gibberish. However, some people can engage in fully-fledged and grammatically correct conversations with themselves.
Around half of all sleep-talking occurs in children between the ages of three and ten. Only one in twenty adults regularly sleep talks.
Most people only discover that they sleep talk when their partner or roommate informs them. Even so, it can be a little embarrassing to find out that you’re chattering away to yourself during the night. Who knows what you might say?
Fortunately, there are several strategies that you can use that reduce the chances you’ll blurt out random sentences during the night. Here’s what to do.