• Question: why do people snore and sleep talk?

    Asked by leahyates to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Haha – well snoring is to do with the airways in the nose and the throat. If they are not completely open when you are sleeping, then it can make a lot of noise…and I mean a LOT of noise! This can be due to different things – bad luck, breathing problems, obesity etc.
      Sleep talking is something else, and I don’t know so much about that. I suppose it is probably similar to dreaming, but a bit more intense – it is definitely a different cause from snoring though.

    • Photo: Laura Soul

      Laura Soul answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Snoring is a biological problem caused by the shape of your airways, for some people when they breathe in and out it causes the sides of their airways to vibrate and make the snoring noise. This happens to some people because they get overweight and the shape of their airways changes, but some people are just born with it. For some people when they are sleeping their airway can completely collapse when they snore and it wakes them up! This is called sleep apnoea.

      Talking in your sleep is a different, I talk in my sleep! Some people think that it’s just because when you dream the same parts of your brain that are active and processing information while you are awake are active while you are dreaming. This means they end up sending the same signals to the rest of your brain that they normally do while you are awake, like for example signals to move and talk.

    • Photo: Sandra Phinbow

      Sandra Phinbow answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      Hearing someone sleep talk can be hilarious!

      My eldest son talks all the time in his sleep, full on conversations. Usually about zombies and nuclear bunkers and have they got enough toilet paper to get through the summer (yeah I know!).

      When he was little he was asleep with me and I asked him to move over a bit and he replied ‘I can’t, I haven’t been crowned King yet’.

      🙂

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