How to COVID-19 affected sleep talking episodes?

Introduction and objectives: Current literature documents the negativeeffect of COVID-19 on sleep and mental health. The drasticchanges in nocturnal and diurnal habits increase symptoms ofstress, anxiety and depression, and low sleep quality and sleephygiene. The symptoms listed and sleep are closely related, and ithas been repeatedly demonstrated how stressful factors and/orbad sleep habits can affect parasomnia behaviours. The high prevalenceof nightmares during the pandemic period could reflect thisrelation. However, the studies focusing on the influence ofCOVID-19 on other parasomnias are scarce. We present a preliminarystudy 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 STepisodes (STs) (F = 21; age mean: 23.55) from a previous studyconducted during a pre-COVID period (from 2017 to 2018). Theinclusion 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. Theywere instructed to complete sleep logs and audio-recorded their vocalactivations.Results: The results showed a higher STs frequency in the ST groupduring the pandemic (Mann-Whitney U = 543.000; p = 0.013). Moreover,we found a positive correlation between STs and the intra-nightwake (WASO), exclusively in the pandemic group (rhos = 0.388;p = 0.037). However, there were no differences in the sleep variablesbetween the two groups.Conclusion: The influence of stressful factors on ST is poorly understood.The pandemic group produced more STs than the prepandemicgroup. Consistently with the literature, this result couldreflect the stressful effect of COVID-19 on the frequency of STs.Although the findings revealed no differences in sleep variables, thecorrelation between STs and WASO may show the indirect negativeinfluence of COVID-19 on nocturnal sleep. Further studies shouldfocus on the relation between ST and the pandemic trend.