Health News.

‘Joan, darling, I am going to see you soon’: the husband was repeating this whilst asleep. Next morning his wife Pat was very angry as she had overheard this other woman’s name; a big scene followed. The husband could not think of anyone he knew called Joan, and explained that it must have been Joan Collins, as she was to be on television that night.

In fact, this is extremely rare. People who sleep-talk do not confess any secrets that they would not say whilst awake. The accuracy of these messages in sleep-talking are always in doubt. Sleep-talking can happen during both REM and NREM sleep. Some experts report that talk during REM sleep is often charged with emotion, relating to the contents of the dreams taking place. In contrast, talk during NREM sleep is deficient of any emotional content.

Normally sleep-talking consists of simple phrases or single words, such as ‘Yes, that is it’, ‘No, oh, no’, or ‘Well done’. Sleep-talking is more common in children and is normally quite harmless. There is no need for any treatment.

Before the days of sleep laboratories, it was believed that sleepwalking, night tenor, and children’s bed-wetting happened during dreaming. Nowadays, with the help of the sleep laboratories, we know mat these related phenomena occur in the deep sleep stages of NREM sleep, and are not features of dreams at all.

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