If you care to let's have luncheon, every day here just the same, but sweetheart-if you talk in your sleep, don't mention my name
"If You Talk In Your Sleep"- by Sammy Fain ,The Singing Composer
Somniloquy or sleep-talking is sleep disorder that usually occurs during the 4th stage of NREMsleep. The fourth stage of NREM ( non REM sleep) does not produce as many dreams as REM sleep, and dreams in this state are not as vivid as in REM sleep.
The content of dreams produced in this Slow Wave Sleep mode tend to be disjointed.
Parasomnias, or sleep disorders,- including sleepwalking, sleepeating, sleep sex, teeth grinding, night terrors, rhythmic movement disorder, REM behaviour disorder and restless legs syndrome occur in this state, and any number of these can be an adjunct to Somniloquy .
Sleep-talking has been reported in 50% of young children, who usually outgrow it by puberty,with about 5% occurence in adults, where it tends to run in families.
Sleep- talking appears to be of interest only if it is loud, profane or both.
One of the loudest and profanest of sleep talkers was Dion Mcgregor whose songwriting partner Mike Barr managed to record over 500 somniloquies in exchange for giving Mcgregor a place to sleep.
The choicest sleep talk sessions were released as an LP on Decca called “The Dream World Of Dion Mcgregor”, with cover art by Edward Gorey. A book of dream speech transcriptions.with illustrations by Gorey again was published at about the same time.
In Febrary of 1999, Tzadik Records released Dion McGregor Dreams Again, an additional ten dreams by Dion.
Torpor Vigil Soundworks spat out “The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor “ in 2004.
There are several prolific modern- day somniloquists who tend to be self-explotative like:
The Parasomnial Order who couches his morphic utterances in an almost impenetrable faux gnostic schtick
Sleep Talking On The Mic who is quite certain that his sleep disorder is evidence of demonic possesion
Somnography of Somniloquy - Dandan's Sleeptalk who seems to have a healthy handle on it- after all, the colophone to his blog is: “I talk in my sleep. I say weird things. I record it.”
Nate at Night who thinks it’s kinda fucking hilarious
And Ngram .net who just hopes it’s poetry.
Other Resources:
I Talk When I Sleep Support Group
Somnioloquism and the Sleeping Dimension episode of Educational Showdown hosted by Jamie and Adrienne on WRUV 90.1 Burlington Vt.
Dion McGregor On Myspace
Index of choice DM cuts[via Ink Mathematics]