THE ESSENTIAL
- Talking while sleeping is a disorder called “somniloquy”.
- Verbal vocalizations occur during slow-wave sleep and REM sleep.
It’s a fact: people generally sleep worse and worse. Professor Isabelle Arnulf, head of the sleep exploration department at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, is interested in “sleep neurology”, that is to say more in the consequences than in the makes sleeping badly in itself.
A nocturnal bustle
Moving, shouting, falling out of bed, somnambulism… These gestures are also great classics of the new way of looking at sleep disorders, just like talking while sleeping.
Language is a very complex mechanism in everyday life and few studies have focused on the “language of the night”. Probably because it’s not a symptom of a disease and few people really complain regarding it. Except in the case of night terrors which terrorize those around them, more than those who suffer from them, who remember very little regarding them.
In an impressive study by the sample, 10,000 video recordings among which 230 “speakers” of 50 years (more or less 20) on average, including 59% of men, were selected. 129 of them had a proven sleep disorder, 87 suffered from somnambulistic terrors. All agreed to be videotaped. The researchers analyzed the number of words, the proposals and the episodes of speech, the frequency, the gaps, the pauses, the tone (imperative, negative, interrogative), the politeness and the rudeness, used during their sleep.
An evidence: there is a conflicting language of the night!
The doctors recorded 883 speech episodes, containing 59% non-verbal utterances (mumbling, screaming, whispering and laughing) and 3,349 comprehensible words. The most frequent was “no”, closely followed by “shit” and “damn”. This shows the origin of the motivation to speak: the conflict. Many questions (26%) and nearly 10% contained profanity. The verbal abuse lasted longer in REM sleep (during dream time) and was primarily aimed at insulting or condemning someone. Men “talked” more than women and used a higher proportion of swear words. According to the study, the vast majority of the time, the expression is conflicting.
Talkative but well mannered
Surprisingly, even when asleep, the brain retained in language the trace of the level of education of these liberated speakers. Even furious, the sleeper expresses himself well. This study shows that the dormant brain can function at a high level, but that tensions and conflicts are what bring the most expression. Which may seem logical. The aim of the researchers is now to develop a larger program which aims to develop new techniques for treating nightmares and especially night terrors which ruin the night but also the lives of thousands of people.
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