To ask if you can stop someone talking in their sleep?

[drspouse]

DH does this, and sometimes shouts. He does have bad dreams sometimes I know. But it wakes me up - especially the shouting! And I can sometimes struggle to go back to sleep if I wake.

Is there any hope? It's at least every other night and the shouting is at least once a week.

(It's the usual dream random madness - DON'T GO IN THERE or I SAID NO or IT'S ON THE ROOF kind of thing. At least he's never accused me of murdering him, I suppose!)

Following as my DH does this too sometimes. The most amusing was waking up to him saying garbled, incomprehensible sounds followed by him loudly shouting “MARMALADE” then immediately shutting up.

My 4 year old is doing this too so following

I’d imagine you can, if you can work out the cause. My ex tried a couple of things, doctor prescribed tablets which he took once and refused to continue with, then tried counselling but found they asked him uncomfortable things so didn’t go back. I put up with 11 years of yelling, pulling curtain rails from the wall, trying to pull me out of bed by my ankles (to save me from the unsafe roof I was supposedly lying on) but he never followed through with any of it. It wasn’t why I left, but I don’t miss it I have to admit.

My DH does this lots. It's usually caused by stress etc. What helps my DH is talking about his problems in the day and doing something relaxing at night before bed.

lets that sounds really stressful, thankfully we just have shouting.
Never MARMALADE though he does like it.

I am guilty of this. In my case I have very vivid dreams (always have done - runs in the women in my family). I talk, cry, laugh and I mean loudly. I've woken myself up laughing in the past. Drives husband bezerk but he uses ear plugs now so doesn't wake him up anymore.

Maybe google the different sleep stages and when in the night sleep talking/walking can occur. It can point to different sleep issues. Most people sleep talk early in the night IIRC. If its a fairly predictable pattern, i.e. time of night then you could try interrupting sleep lightly in the same way people do with children who have night terrors or toilet training?

I'm a chronic sleep talker/walker and we've never yet found a way of stopping it though, my DH just puts up with it these days.

I do this, my husband sometimes sleeps in a different room to get a good nights sleep . I wake him up shouting and screaming all the time. Not sure if there’s an answer . Wish I could stop !

I do it, especially if I’m having a sleep after being really tired iykwim. I’ve found that taking half a Nytol on nights I’m really tired seems to send me into a different level of sleep and I don’t talk. I had no idea I did this but I’ve said all sorts of awful things over the years which have really upset dh on occasion.

you could try interrupting sleep lightly in the same way people do with children who have night terrors or toilet training?
Hard to do if I'm asleep!

I talk in my sleep , I woke myself up last week saying thank you . My husband tries to engage me in conversation to see if I answer but the answers never make any sense. I don't think there is a way to stop it

I can hold a full conversation in my sleep with someone awake. My husband often has to check in the morning if I was asleep or if I actually heard what he was talking to me about. I also took in an entire conversation through Discord when I passed out from flu with my headset on, it's the weirdest. I don't shout though so my husband isn't suffering from waking.

It's nearly always stress with me OP. Try getting him to talk about his stressors each day, and end the evening with a book instead of a screen.

I find taping DPs mouth shut helps.

He does need to sort out his sleep in general, but all the suggestions I make (that help me) are "not going to help". Except a new pillow (not my suggestion and we don't really need them).

The answer is there are some things that can be done to help - but it would have to be severe before the NHS took it seriously.

My daughter has major sleep issues - re-enacts dreams, sleepwalks and can be violent - she broke her boyfriends nose once, the police found her walking down the road in her pyjamas, she was stopped by a neighbour as she was about to drive off in her car, once in a hotel the police were called and entered the room as they thought someone was being murdered in her room - all whilst sound asleep.

After simply years of talking to Dr's she got refereed to a sleep specialist and spent time in hospital with her head wired up whilst she slept and after many examinations found out she was missing the hormone that immobilises us during dreaming. She was prescribed tablets and it improved slightly. (It has also been logged through all the official channels just in case she does ever murder anyone. Lol!!!!)

Hers is an extreme example of this but the advice in general is same as always - no caffeine/alcohol, limit screens before bed, stress aggravates it, regular sleep patterns, exercise but not too close to bedtime - all are supposed to help She found sleeping in as cold as room as possible was the biggest help.

But my daughters improved dramatically when she became a firefighter working shifts - everything supposed to make it worse - so this is really no real help at all!!!

But my daughters improved dramatically when she became a firefighter working shifts - everything supposed to make it worse - so this is really no real help at all!!!

I know he'd like to sort out his sleep in general but he's being a stubborn I Know Best person at the moment.

You could get him a cheap smart watch with a vibrating alarm, set for the period of sleep when the sleep talking happens. You don't have to wake him yourself.

I'm going to have a talk to him again about winding down in the evenings, we have just had an aqueous-cream-all-over-DS-and-bedroom incident so we are both beyond stressed!

DP does this and it drives me crackers. He screams like he’s being murdered and it wakes me up for a good hour afterwards cos the adrenaline is going

He also gets terrible night sweats too

Placemarking!

Btw we have an app that records his sleep talking and it really is fantastic, we get lots of amusement out of it