How to find out if you sleep talk? Sleep talking is quite a common thing to do among many people. Through sleep talking, they share their dreams with us. Mostly in a non-understandable way. Someone told you you’re sleep talking and you don’t really believe it? Or you just feel like you are unintentionally sharing your deepest secrets with the outside world and you want to know about it? Or maybe you just think sleep talking is funny and you want to know if you sleep talk. Here’s how you can find out.
Quick answer: To find out if you sleep talk, there are many ways. The first is to use your smartphone’s recording app. A more advanced (but also more useful) way is to use a sleep tracking app that can record sleep sounds. Or if you have a partner, ask him what you are talking about at night. By finding out what you talk by recording it you can also find out about the kind of dreams you have on a regular basis.
Still, the quick answer doesn’t tell you exactly what to do, so let’s cover everything in some more detail, so you can just follow along.
Here are the contents:
- How to use an app to find out if you sleep talk
- Why you should use a sleep tracking app over the built-in recorder
- Ask a friend or your partner to find out if you sleep talk
- Is sleep talking dangerous? – Should you prevent it?
How to find out if someone else is sleep talking – Just ask them a question!
I’ve heard so many friends sleep talking at night and got quite a feeling for it. Some talk freely on their own. Some only start talking if you ask them a question. The answer is often something confused:
- I just ask: “What happened?”
- Sleep talking friend: “This thing looks like a giant donut”
This might be some insight into what they dream about. Of course, you shouldn’t ask more than one question, because this will most likely just disrupt their sleep. So I got quite interested in sleep talking.
But of course, we want to know how you can find out if you sleep talk, not if someone else sleep talks. Therefore, you’ll need a helper! We’ll use an app.
How to use an app to find out if you sleep talk
To find out whether you sleep talk or not, the simplest idea is to use an app that can do so. Here’s what to do: Go to the app store / play store and type in either “sleep talk recorder” or “snore recorder”. Why snore recorder though? It’s because it’s meant to do the exact same thing: record noise at night. It doesn’t differentiate between snoring and sleep talking. So, both of them are suited for your purposes. Oftentimes, there are other features built-in as well. For example a deep sleep tracker, an alarm clock or a sleep diary.
Select one of the apps and download it. I recommend “sleep as android” as it has lots of functionality! Then, you can open it. Now, everything should be self-explanatory. But still, here’s a small picture guide on how to activate the sleep noise recording function. It is not enabled by default!
Sleep talking apps work like this: You start the recording mode before you go to bed. Now, it will record every sound you make. In the next morning, you can then listen to what you said during your sleep.
Why you should use a sleep tracking app over the built-in recorder
It’s simple: Storage. The only reason is your storage. While the built-in recording function is nice for recording something for a few seconds or minutes, it is incredibly unsuitable for recording your sleep talk.
The reason is that during your sleep, you’ll be quiet 99% of the time and you’ll only talk 1% of the time (that could vary, it’s just a guess). The built-in recorder will record everything from start to finish so you’ll end up with an 8-hour long audio file of your sleep noise. That consumes a lot of storage space on your phone and on top of that, searching an 8-hour long audio file is no fun.
On the other hand, a sleep-talk recording app leaves out the quiet times and records only when you make noise. When you wake up the next morning, you’ll have a few minutes of recording, usually 10-45, depending on how noisy you are during the night. And these recordings are so interesting to listen to! You’ll know more about yourself and your sleep after you did.
I’m not sure what these apps do when you snore. If you do, you’ll have to try it out.
Quick summary: A sleep tracking app records only when you make noise while the normal, built-in recording app will record the full 8 hours.
Ask a friend or your partner to find out if you sleep talk
You can avoid all this hassle of recording by just asking someone whether you sleep talk or not. Especially, if you have a partner he / she will already know it. Otherwise, good opportunities to ask someone are whenever you sleep next to a friend. For example
- at a sleepover,
- after a party,
- you share a bed with a family member during Christmas time,
- or while camping in a tent (by the way: Here’s a great guide on How To Sleep Better in a Tent. Read this before you go camping the next time!
To find out if you sleep talk, just ask the person whether you sleep talk or not the next morning.
Is sleep talking dangerous? Should you prevent it?
That’s a topic for itself, but I’m going to answer it quickly: No sleep talking itself is not dangerous! However, sleep talking can reveal other health-issues!
It is an expression of your body while you sleep. While you sleep, different processes reform your brain and build new neuronal connections. During this process of reorganization, unexpected signals can travel through your brain. You’ve experienced them:
For example when you jump during sleep or when you sleep talk.
These are natural processes and they affect some people more than others.
Sleep talking can reveal other problems though. For example, if your partner is sleep talking about something disgusting or horrifying every night, he / she most likely suffers from nightmares. Then, you’ll need to investigate the reasons for his nightmares. Actually, sleep talking is a great thing, because issues like these would not be uncovered otherwise.
Nearly 7 out of 10 people have sleep talked at least once
Sleep talking is not unusual. The national sleep foundation reports that 17% of people sleep talk regularly and 66% have done it at least once. It is classified as a sleep disorder that requires no treatment. The reason is that there’s no further damage to you if you sleep talk. Only if you do it every day and feel uncomfortable with it, you should talk to a doctor. Not in order to treat sleep talking, but to find the underlying mechanism that causes it.
Should you try to prevent sleep talking?
As we’ve just found out, sleep talking is not dangerous. Therefore, trying to prevent it is not necessary. However, there are some situations in which you want to avoid sleep talking.
These are:
- When you are sleeping with a partner and you’re disturbing his sleep.
- You’re traveling in a plane, bus or train and you don’t want the other passengers to know your deepest fears.
- When you fall asleep during a lecture (or in any other place where you should be quiet)
What can you do in these situations? How can you prevent your sleep talking?
How to prevent sleep talking
Generally, you don’t need to worry about sleep talking too much. Sleep talking is less likely to occur when you are in an uncomfortable situation. On the other side, you are more likely to sleep talk when you are at home and get a good night of sleep.
Accordingly, sleep talking is very unlikely to happen when you are traveling or when you are sleeping at someone’s house who you don’t know yet. Also, I’ve never heard anyone sleep talking during a lecture.
Whenever you really want to prevent sleep talking, because you would feel embarrassed, you most likely won’t sleep talk. The reason is that you set up a mental barrier in your head that prevents you from reaching deep sleep.
What causes sleep talking?
But there are also some external factors that can induce sleep talk which you should avoid. According to the national sleep foundation, these are
- Stress: Try to reduce stress at work, school and at home.
- Alcohol: Alcohol has an impact on your brain and your sleep. The effects of alcohol could be connected to sleep talking.
- Lack of sleep: Lack of sleep can also induce sleep talk.
However, you shouldn’t avoid these problems in order to avoid sleep talking only. They are so important that you should always pay attention to them.
Sleep talking is often caused by issues in your everyday life. Do you have problems with a friend or your partner? How is your work-life balance? Do you sleep enough? These are simple questions but have fundamental meaning for your health.
You can often tackle the stress problem by using earplugs. Here’s a Guide on using Earplugs – The most effective stress-busting weapon! And they are awesome for sleep as well. Sadly, they can’t do anything about alcohol as well.
Improving your sleep reduces your sleep talking
On top of that what you should do is to build a regular sleep schedule. This means go to sleep at the same time every day and wake up at the same time every day. Stick to your schedule even if it’s weekend.
To fall asleep better and to improve your process of adapting to it, avoid smartphone, TV or computer screens at least 1 hour before you go to bed. The blue light from these screens harms your sleep and is shown to shift your sleep schedule and day and night rhythm.
Your partner is annoyed of sleep talking – What to do?
For me, this is extremely simple to answer, because I have been in that situation as well. There’s one simple solution: Earplugs.
Give him / her a pair of earplugs, or better: A whole bulk pack that lasts for a year.
Earplugs are the single best answer to noise issues at night. And obviously, sleep talking is one of them. Since I use earplugs, I sleep much better, even with someone who sleep talks occasionally.
If you know about earplugs, but you’re not sure about them yet, here’s my complete earplugs guide with everything you need to know. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference a simple pair of earplugs can make in your life!
When you use earplugs, you won’t be able to hear sleep talking. You can stop worrying about waking up at night. And also, they are beneficial for the sleep talker himself.
Why sleep talkers need earplugs
In my experience, people sleep talk only in situations in which they are “pseudo-awake”. What I mean with it is that by their behavior you first think they are awake, but if you try to interact with a sleep talker, he will either wake up and be confused or he’ll fall back asleep.
Sleep talkers often start sleep talking when they wake up from some external factor. For example, when I move and make some noises, my girlfriend suddenly “pseudo-wakes-up” and starts talking to me.
To avoid sleep talking, you need to encapsulate the sleep talker from the outside world. A sleep talker needs to be able to sleep without distractions. Sleep talking is mostly activated by some kind of external distraction from sleep.
Therefore: If you are a sleep talker: Use earplugs. If your partner is a sleep talker: Give him / her earplugs.
Of course, there are different kinds of sleep talking. But I’m sure you’ll be able to reduce it with this method.
The Outline – How to find out if you sleep talk?
Sleep talking is not unnatural or dangerous! If you think you sleep talk, you can simply use a sleep tracking app to record the noise you make while you sleep. Listen to the recording the next morning, and you’ll know.
If you found out that you sleep talk, you probably want to know how you can stop it. As long as you are sleeping alone, there’s no reason to stop it as sleep talking is not dangerous to you. But it can harm other people’s sleep if it wakes them up.
If that’s the case, all you have to do is to get some earplugs and supply yourself and your partner or friends with them. Then, everybody will be able to sleep well and wake up refreshed the next morning!