Why Do Humans Talk In Their Sleep? An Evolutionary Biologist Explains

Article excerpt

Sleep talking remains one of neuroscience's minor mysteries, but evolutionary biologist Scott Travers identifies three leading explanations for why humans vocalize during sleep. The phenomenon, which affects roughly 66% of people at some point, may stem from the brain's incomplete shutdown during certain sleep stages, emotional processing that spills into speech, or evolutionary remnants from when our ancestors needed to maintain group vigilance. Understanding these mechanisms offers insight into how sleep cycles process information and why our brains sometimes can't keep quiet when we're supposedly at rest.