When I hear my youngest son giggling inside the room during sleeping hours, it only means that his older brother is sleep talking again. 

He would talk about toys, his classmates, games console, RPG… he talks about just about anything! Sometimes, he invents words. Words that escape us because the word is non-existent. My youngest would even get the dictionary to look up the meaning of the unfamiliar word but to no avail.  We’re used to hearing him talk in his sleep.

Sleep talking or somniloquy occurs when you talk out-loud during sleep. According to SleepEducation.com, sleep talking can occur by itself or it could be a feature of a sleep disorder such as sleeping terrors, sleepwalking, sleep related eating disorder or sleep behavior disorder.

The experts say that sleep talking is common in children and is reported in 50% in young children. However, most of them outgrow it by puberty. The study also postulates that sleep talking may be genetically linked. I’ve been told that I sleep talk, too. I deduce that my son may have gotten the sleep-talking genes from me.

Sleep talking is harmless. One important thing to take note of is when the sleep talking becomes emotional in nature. It could be a symptom of a sleep disorder and medical intervention is needed in such case.

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