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Language Use in Sleep-Talking Among Bilingual Children: Insights from Northern Spain

This study investigates the language used by healthy bilingual children during sleep-talking episodes. Conducted across three bilingual schools in Northern Spain, the research surveyed 681 children aged 3-17, focusing on their sleep-talking behaviors in Spanish and Euskera. Results indicate that dominant bilinguals predominantly use their native language while sleep-talking, with balanced bilinguals showing a tendency to use either language. Emotional stress and cultural influences affect language choice. The findings highlight the complexity of language organization in the brain and suggest future research into multilingualism and its impacts on sleep-related phenomena.

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Language Use in Sleep-Talking Among Bilingual Children: Insights from Northern Spain

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  1. Native Language Shifts Across Sleep-wake States in Bilingual Sleep-talkersJuan A. Pareja, Eloy de Pablos, Ana B. Caminero, Isabel Millán and José LDobato Presented by Kimberley Chen

  2. Introduction • What is sleep-talking? • Common parasomnia that range from mumbled nonsense to coherent sentences but without detailed awareness of the event • Occurs spontaneously; sometimes due to emotional stress • Happens during NREM sleep and REM sleep • More frequent in children and teenagers than in adults

  3. Previous research & Research Question • Multi-language patients always use their dominant language during sleep-talking episodes • To study the language used by healthy bilingual children during episodes of sleep-talking

  4. Methods • Subjects: • 3 bilingual schools in Northern Spain • 681 children ( 336 males and 341 females , 4 unknowns) • Age 3-17 (mean age: 9.0; SD: 2.6) • 1000 parents agreed to participate too • Languages: Spanish & Euskera

  5. Methods • Procedure • Parents had to complete self-administered questionnaire • Sample questions: • What was the 1st language learned by your child? • Does your child sleep talk? • If you child sleep-talks, what language does he/she speak while sleeping? *To ensure reliability in answers, parents were told to skip any question in doubt and they could call the investigator to discuss any doubts

  6. Results • Sleep-talking occurred in 56.3% of the 681 children

  7. Results

  8. Results Percentage of subjects Native Language

  9. Discussion • Dominant bilinguals found to use native language during episodes of sleep-talking • <4% found to use non-dominant language persistently during sleep-talking • Balanced bilinguals showed tendency to sleep-talk in either of the two native languages without preference • Environmental factors like cultural and social atmosphere tip balance towards one language

  10. Discussion • Differences in intra-hemispheric organization • Two languages learnt early in infancy at the same time  Represented in same cortical areas of dominant cerebral hemisphere • One language learnt first and then second language learnt  Represented in different brain areas

  11. Discussion • Emotional stress • Released in an unconscious way during episodes of sleep-talking • Some elements with negative content* usually occur in second-acquired language. * Research done on bilingual patients with auditory hallucinations: hear aggressive voices in second language and protective voices in native language

  12. Conclusion • Predominance of bilingual subjects used their native language during episodes of sleep-talking

  13. Strengths & Limitations Strengths • Easy to read • Large sample size • Balance of genders • Limitations • Only one region of the world was tested • Parents may be bias • Did not link to specific brain areas • No clear hypothesis

  14. Future experiments • To test on multi-linguals (more than 3 languages) • Test other areas in the world where bilingualism exists • Narrow the age range • Use a voice recorder to record sleep-talking

  15. Thank you for listening!!!  Any questions?

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