In one way or another, we’ve probably heard someone starting to talk in the middle of the night, whether it’s your partner, a sibling, or a friend who is sleeping.
Sleep talking or somniloquy is a form of parasomnia, or a sleep disorder that manifests unusual wakefulness behaviours, just like sleepwalking.
Talking in your sleep can involve monologues, random gibberish, loud noises, mumbles, and in some cases, dialogues.
The sleep talking can occur whether you’re in REM sleep or non-REM part of your sleep cycles. You shouldn’t worry about sleep talking too much as they are commonly seen in 2 out of 3 sleepers.
Most sleep talkers don’t remember anything during their slumber, and only those who are awake during your sleep talking episodes can remember them and tell you about it the next day.
The kinds of things we say when we’re in dreamland are mostly random, sometimes strange things can even be mentioned.
Here are a few examples of ridiculous things we’ve said in our sleep and what they could possibly mean.
“No” – The Most Common Word Uttered during Sleep Talks
No is one of the most common things people say when they’re sleep talking. It’s mostly triggered when people are having internal discussions and conflicts in their sleep.
Some sleep experts say that during sleep, we often try to resolve personal issues that we don’t address when we’re in full consciousness, and it’s more natural for us to do it in our sleep.
Random Profanities
In some studies, it’s been claimed that people are more likely to cuss when they’re asleep than when they’re awake; except when we’re talking about our potty-mouth friends. No offence!
There’s a theory that our dreams are simulations that help us train off threats that may occur in our everyday life. Some times we cuss during sleep as part of our fight-or-flight response to threats.
Although we may utter vulgarities during a good night’s sleep, this doesn’t mean we’re angry people – it’s just the way it is.
Precognition
In our sleep, we can sometimes say things that have never occurred, and yet we see it happening the next day.
Are we all innately psychic? There’s really no way to tell.
People are looking into the psychic phenomenon called precognition. New age believers and gurus may consider the sleep talking predictions as a mystical gift; in contrast, those in the field of science and medicine would just call it a coincidence.
Animal Sounds
As funny as it seems, we sometimes make animal sounds during our sleep. No one can really tell why, but we don’t think that makes you less human.
Others would say that the animal sounds we create during our sleep are closely tied to the animals we closely associate with – our “spirit animals”.
I personally have made elephant sounds in my sleep, and I absolutely adore elephants – maybe there might be a connection, who knows?
SPARTA!
If you hear someone yelling “Sparta” in the middle of his sleep, don’t be bothered. Shouting Sparta when you’re asleep just means the person’s probably dreaming about the movie.
Battle cries (not just for Sparta) aren’t uncommon; they often occur when a person is dreaming of epic wars and battles in his sleep.
The wars could be tangent to internal conflicts and struggle that a person is trying to conquer in his own life.
Trust us, the battle cry isn’t an unusual thing, and we’ve heard a few people say it in their sleep.
Saying a Man/Woman’s Name That Isn’t Your Partner
It means you’re sleeping on the couch tomorrow.
But on a serious note, saying out another person’s name in your sleep may not mean anything at all.
It’s not even unusual for a person to blurt out the name of a person he doesn’t even know in real life. Our brain is a hyper-creative device even while we are in a deep sleep.
Our brain can create certain abstract characters in the middle of our dreams, and they may have some likeliness with real-life counterparts, but they’re not always real people.
Likewise, these dreams created are also not always reflective of our true intents and emotions.
Cries for Help
We know we said ridiculous things we say in our sleep, and cries for help aren’t ridiculous at all. But, let’s take a look at what they mean anyway.
The person sleeping might be experiencing a nightmare; if you catch them having a hard time in their sleep, then it’s best to wake them up.
In some cultures, it’s even customary to pull that person’s toe as to ward off bad spirits bothering him in his sleep.
Regardless of the reason a person is crying out for help in the middle of the night, wake them up and try to check if everything’s okay.
Final Thoughts
There’s no clear meaning of the things people say during their sleep. They may appear to mean something else for us but absolutely mean nothing to a sleep talker.
Sleep talking is as healthy as dreaming; it’s not an indication of anything wrong or any sleep problems to worry about.
If anything, sleep talking just shows that you’re in a deep enough sleep to enjoy dreaming at night.
