How to COVID-19 affected sleep talking episodes?

Introduction and objectives: Current literature documents the negative effect of COVID-19 on sleep and mental health. The drastic changes in nocturnal and diurnal habits increase symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, and low sleep quality and sleep hygiene. The symptoms listed and sleep are closely related, and it has been repeatedly demonstrated how stressful factors and/or bad sleep habits can affect parasomnia behaviours. The high prevalence of nightmares during the pandemic period could reflect this relation. However, the studies focusing on the influence of COVID-19 on other parasomnias are scarce. We present a preliminary study focusing on the impact of the pandemic on Sleep Talking (ST). Method: We recruited N = 29 participants with frequent ST (F = 23; age mean: 23.48) during the pandemic (January 2021– October 2021) and selected N = 27 participants with frequent ST episodes (STs) (F = 21; age mean: 23.55) from a previous study conducted during a pre-COVID period (from 2017 to 2018). The inclusion criteria were: 1. Frequent STs, as reported in the Munich Parasomnia Questionnaire (score of 5–7 on the item related to STs); 2. Absence of medical conditions; 3. Absence of other sleep disorders except for ST; 4. No drug or alcohol abuse. For seven days, all participants performed home monitoring. They were instructed to complete sleep logs and audio-recorded their vocal activations. Results: The results showed a higher STs frequency in the ST group during the pandemic (Mann-Whitney U = 543.000; p = 0.013). Moreover, we found a positive correlation between STs and the intra-night wake (WASO), exclusively in the pandemic group (rhos = 0.388; p = 0.037). However, there were no differences in the sleep variables between the two groups. Conclusion: The influence of stressful factors on ST is poorly understood. The pandemic group produced more STs than the prepandemic group. Consistently with the literature, this result could reflect the stressful effect of COVID-19 on the frequency of STs. Although the findings revealed no differences in sleep variables, the correlation between STs and WASO may show the indirect negative influence of COVID-19 on nocturnal sleep. Further studies should focus on the relation between ST and the pandemic trend.