ABSTRACT
The most striking demonstration of independent specific components is provided by a comparison between primary idiopathic somniloquy and bruxism. Clinical observation indicates that certain major sleep disorders—somnambulism, nocturnal enuresis, and night terrors—are often concurrent. Epilepsy, various electroencephalogram abnormalities, central nervous system infection and trauma, familial tendencies, and psychopathology are commonly part of the background of each of these conditions. B. A. Mick noted instances of familial tendencies of sleep-walking, severe and frequent headaches, and sleep-talking. Sleep-talking can occur in children even when neither parent is a sleep-talker, although such children are in the minority. Families may actually harbor some decorous, soft-spoken sleep-talkers who escape detection, leading to such families being tabulated among those with negative sleep-talking histories. A hereditary factor increases the likelihood of sleep-talking in the children of sleep-talking parents. A family in which none of the members have observed sleep-talking in the household may well tend to be less alert to its occurrence in others.
