Why Do People Talk in Their Sleep?

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Dr. Robert Hernandez. I'm a psychologist in Miami, Florida, and I'm president and owner of La Farfalla Retreat House. Let's talk a little bit about why people talk in their sleep. The phenomenon is known as somniloquy, and it's -- first of all, it's not a medical problem, so it's nothing to be too gravely concerned about. And what's really interesting is that the study does say that 50 percent of children talk in their sleep, and there's no difference between girls and boys. But it does go down to five percent in adults, which I find that very interesting. It can occur in any stage of the dream cycle, and of course, it's -- for those of us that are next to someone that does talk in their sleep, we always want to know if there are some secrets or if there's something juicy that we can get out of them. But really, there's nothing -- it could be a secret, it could be a dream, it could be pure fantasy that the person might be expressing during their sleep. So there's no constant study about the phenomenon in and of itself -- that there's no medical condition, that's for sure."