I'm pretty sure that you have all heard of someone talking in their sleep. Sleep talking, along with various other unusual sleep behaviors are known as non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) parasomnias. Other examples of these behaviors are: sleep eating, sleep walking and night terrors.
You may be wondering, what causes these things to happen? Well, to better understand this we need to take a look at the sleep cycle. When you go to sleep you first enter a light sleep, then drift into a deep sleep, after that you re-enter a lighter sleep and that may be followed by the rapid eye movement phase of sleep (when dreams are most vivid). These parts of sleep are determined by brain wave patterns.
During the transition of these sleep phases one may wake up (partially or fully). Usually you fall right back to sleep, but sometimes part of your brain stays 'awake' while the other part transitions into another sleep phase. This is when NREM's happen. People going through NREM's are unaware of what they are doing and have no recollection of what happened when they wake up.
A few things that can trigger NREM's are:
You may be wondering, what causes these things to happen? Well, to better understand this we need to take a look at the sleep cycle. When you go to sleep you first enter a light sleep, then drift into a deep sleep, after that you re-enter a lighter sleep and that may be followed by the rapid eye movement phase of sleep (when dreams are most vivid). These parts of sleep are determined by brain wave patterns.
During the transition of these sleep phases one may wake up (partially or fully). Usually you fall right back to sleep, but sometimes part of your brain stays 'awake' while the other part transitions into another sleep phase. This is when NREM's happen. People going through NREM's are unaware of what they are doing and have no recollection of what happened when they wake up.
A few things that can trigger NREM's are:
- Sleeping in a unusual location
- More frequent in someone who is sleep deprived
- Can happen when you move a child after they have fallen asleep
- Can occur when you get sick
The reason these things may cause abnormal sleep behaviors is our body is trying to protect itself but the need for sleep is more dominant and our minds get stuck in the middle phase of conscious and unconscious.
What to do when you come across a person going through one of these sleep abnormalities:
- Don't try and wake then up! This will do no good and could potentially be traumatic for the sleep walker (or talker, or eater).
- Guild them to bed safely.
- Medications can be used but are for the most part unnecessary if proper steps are taken to prevent these things from happening.
Now you know why these things happen and ways to help prevent them and handle them. I hope this was helpful.
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