The Link Between Sleep Talking and Dementia: What You Need to Know

[이데일리 이순용 기자] A 72-year-old woman always sleeps alone because of her excessive drowsiness. She originally slept with her spouse, but every night the violent movements forced her to fall out of bed, or even hit her spouse with her fists, leaving her in each room. She eventually went to a sleep clinic and had her polysomnogram done, and she was diagnosed with ‘dream risk talk’ rather than ‘normal drool talk’. Her frightened aunt immediately started treatment for her drool, and as a result of continuous treatment for more than six months, her drool frequency decreased significantly.

Sleep talking can be a warning light for dementia, so it has been argued that if sleep talking continues to appear more than once a week, it is desirable to check it. Researchers at McGill University in Canada conducted a study on people suffering from sleep behavior disorder for 12 years and announced that more than 50% of them developed degenerative neurological diseases such as dementia or Parkinson’s disease.

Regarding this, Han Jin-gyu, director of the Seoul Sleep Center, said, “Originally, during REM sleep, the motor paralysis control part in the brainstem is activated and it is normal to sleep without movement. REM sleep behavior disorder, which causes severe drowsiness or movement during sleep, appears as the normal motor paralysis function deteriorates,” he emphasized.

In the case of general drool talk, it is common in children and young people, occurs within 3 hours of sleeping, and is characterized by only talking and little action. On the other hand, in the case of drowsiness, which is at risk of dementia or Parkinson’s disease, it usually occurs around 3 to 5 am in the elderly, and behaviors such as rough swearing and waving hands and feet are extreme. In addition, the frequency of sleep talking in general is low, but the frequency of sleep talking in dementia is high, more than once a week.

In particular, if you have cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia, or if you are accompanied by snoring or sleep apnea, you should be more careful as the cause of sleep talking may be a breathing problem during sleep. This is because when apnea occurs during sleep, the brain and heart cannot rest, making it easy to be exposed to cerebrovascular or cardiovascular diseases. At this time, the symptoms of drowsiness will be accompanied. According to the American Sleep Association, if left unattended, the risk of developing cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease increases 3.3 times, and the risk of high blood pressure, daytime sleepiness, and cardiovascular disease is greatly increased.

A polysomnogram is needed to determine the exact cause of drowsiness. This is a test that monitors various vital signs such as brain waves, breathing, oxygen saturation, leg movements, and electrocardiogram while sleeping. Even if you do not talk in your sleep, if you suspect abnormal symptoms such as snoring or bruxism during sleep, or if you feel that the quality of your sleep has deteriorated, it is helpful to check your health with a polysomnography, just like a medical examination.

Currently, health insurance coverage is available for sleep talking, sleep apnea-related polysomnography and positive airway pressure treatment. It is helpful to check and test whether it is applied through prior medical treatment.