What horrors lurk in our subconscious? According to a new French study – believed to be the largest into the subject – on sleep-talking and what we say when we’re asleep, researchers found the most commonly used word is “no”, and the French swearword “putain” occurred, reports the Times, “800 times more often in sleep than when awake”. Some people were verbally abusive. The study also found that men sleep-talked more than women and used more profanities.
Sleep-talking, or somniloquy, is one of a number of a parasomnias (which include sleepwalking and night terrors). “In my experience, [it] can be linked to the nervous system being overstimulated, which can be related to excessive use of technology before bed or too much caffeine,” says Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, sleep therapist and author of Fast Asleep, Wide Awake. “But these sorts of behaviours can happen with people who are quite hard on themselves, they’re perfectionists, but they often hold back on saying what they really want to say. When they go to bed at night, it spills out into the sleep.”