The Influence of Sleep Talking on Nocturnal Sleep and Sleep-Dependent Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Background: Sleep talking (ST) is characterized by the production of unaware verbal vocal activations (VBs) during sleep. ST seems potentially linked to linguistic and memory consolidation processes. However, sleep and dream characteristics and the relationship between verbal vocalizations (VBs) and cognitive functions are still unknown. Our study aimed to investigate qualitative sleep and dream features in sleep talkers (STs) compared to healthy subjects (CNTs) through retrospective and longitudinal measures and explore the relationship between ST and memory consolidation. Methods: We recruited N = 29 STs and N = 30 CNTs (age range of 18–35). Participants recorded their dreams and filled out sleep logs for seven consecutive days. Vocal activations of STs were audio-recorded. On the eighth day, we administered a word-pair task. Results: We showed that STs had significantly worse self-reported sleep quality. VBs were positively correlated with sleep fragmentation and negatively associated with the oneiric emotional load. No difference between groups was found in the memory consolidation rate. Conclusions: Although ST is a benign phenomenon, we revealed that ST is associated with more sleep alterations and lower emotional intensity of dreams. In this vein, we support that ST depends on sleep fragmentation and could represent a potential window into sleep-dependent cognitive processes.