Sleep Talking

[undressa]

I have been informed that I talk and often sit up and on occasion hit, in my sleep. How do I stop doing this?
My hubby informed me that I woke him up last thursday at 345 in the am to talk about our wedding, I sat straight up, pulled off my eye mask, started winking at him and talking about my mother and the wedding, I then flopped on my side and went back to sleep. I asked my mother and she says I have always mumbled and now I have full converstations.

How do I make it stop, hubby is a light sleeper

[Dr Steve]

I have been informed that I talk and often sit up and on occasion hit, in my sleep. How do I stop doing this?
My hubby informed me that I woke him up last thursday at 345 in the am to talk about our wedding, I sat straight up, pulled off my eye mask, started winking at him and talking about my mother and the wedding, I then flopped on my side and went back to sleep. I asked my mother and she says I have always mumbled and now I have full converstations.

How do I make it stop, hubby is a light sleeper

What you're describing is a condition called Somniloquy (a fancy pants way of saying "sleep talking" while making it sound like a diagnosis, which it isn't...it's just a tarted-up description in a foreign language; we love to do that in medicine, for some reason). It's recognized as a "parasomnia" (sleep disorder) and can drive the partner of somniloquists crazy.

Since you also hit, you may have a "REM sleep behavior disorder" to boot. These are disorders that occur during the "Rapid Eye Movement" dream cycle. Usually, people don't talk clearly during those episodes, but rather grunt and make weird noises. At least that's what I remember from medical school. Sleep disorders (along with orthopedics) are a weakness in my education.

A sleep specialist may want to do a sleep study on you to identify what stage of sleep triggers your behavior. Also, if you're on medication, they'll look at your list to make sure one of them isn't causing the problem (unlikely, since this has been going on for a long time, it seems).

Stress definitely makes it worse.

There is a whole book written on this subject (http://books.google.com/books?id=opaF3ZXJcq8C&dq=sleeptalking&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=VxVcpC2hve&sig=Hz2a2EJU7HZtznHLFhpaSvBzLpQ&hl=en&ei=RqiPSd_fF5a5tweuxK2qCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPP1,M1). I read some of it, it's pretty interesting (if you're a medical nerd like I am).

Let me know if you find something that helps; I'm not big on taking pills for something like this unless it's really, really bad. Only you and your partner can decide whether it's worth taking something every day to prevent these episodes.

If you do decide to go to a sleep specialist, please write back and let me know what they say.


your pal,


steve

[undressa]

wow thank u

I think after my nurses come back from strikeing I will see a sleep person

u rule