For as long as I can remember, I have laughed in my sleep. I’m not talking about just smiling or chuckling; I’m talking about laughing out loud. I’m talking about laughing out so loud that I wake myself up, wondering where the sound is coming from. And then I realize that it is just my laughter. And whatever was making me laugh in my dream is no longer funny when I wake up.
When I used to sleep in the same room with my mom, she’d jolt me awake in the middle of my sleep-laughter. Now that I’m with Igwe, he does the same thing, too. He wakes me up when I’m sleep-laughing and looks at me with a worried and inquisitive look. Like I’m crazy or something.
I have been judged, laughed at, pointed at, and … can’t remember what else. But after Igwe pointed his man-fingers at me, you will not believe what I discovered. So there I was working hard on my advertising price list, trying to figure out what to charge for what, and what did I hear? A chuckle! A chuckle that lasted for about three seconds. And then it dissipated and was replaced by a broad smile.
I looked up the condition – you know everything is a condition – on Google, and sure enough, there is a name for it: somniloquy. This must be pronounced something like soliloquy. In soliloquy, people talk out loud. I know you know this already. So in somniloquy, sleep-laughing is the order of the day. According to what I read, copied, and pasted from a website that I now cannot find or remember, “sleep laughing falls under Somniloquy or sleep talking. Sleep talking, or somniloquy, is the act of speaking during sleep. It’s a type of parasomnia — an abnormal behavior that takes place during sleep. It’s a very common occurrence and is not usually considered a medical problem.”
So it’s a condition – though not a medical problem – and I have it. So does Igwe. Our children should be interesting to observe. I might rear them in a museum. And I’ll charge a door fee to see them.
Buahaha
You’re not half serious Vera! Better to laugh than cry shaa
Ginger, I can’t argue with you. I really am not half serious. Sometimes, even I cannot tell when I’m serious or not.
Tell that to a spiri-koko Nigerian…you’ll get the shock of your life.Don’t ask me,cuz I’m not telling.
Mr. Who, yeah I know. Those people are just crazy. They’re paranoid, traditional, and quite misinformed.
You’d better rear them at a museum in Ijebu !!!
For where?! Just wait and see. Lol.
Don’t allow people in 9ja hear oh or you will find yourself in MFM fasting for 7days for your deliverance and ano 7 days for Igwe’s.
HAHAHA OH GOSH so last night I woke myself up, again, laughing. I’ve been sleep laughing since I can remember! Used to always be dead confused as to what was so so funny. Now I’m just like “oh gosh..not again!”. Its pretty hilarious as now I laugh at myself for waking myself up with laughter!
I’m SO glad other people are just as bizarre!! THANKS for sharing!
I always feel great when I wake up laughing then the what the heck sets in. I was singing in my mind “under pressure”. I think that’s the thing here. My sis use to get so mad when I woke her up laughing though. So its happened a lot . but I also talk in my sleep. It has taken me A WHILE to stop…it IS UNCONTROLLABLE PEOPLE.. PBA RELATED??
I do it when I have nightmares, but I’ll tell a joke and wake myself laughing. My wife says I do it every night, I hate it. Accept when I wake up with a eat to eat smile 😉
Ear to eat lol
Interesting, I do the same thing too. (smile & laugh out loud in my sleep) My husband wakes me up, and sometimes I laugh so hard, I wake myself. The dream isn’t even that funny, maybe cheerful, but not funny. Glad to know I’m not the only one smiling and laughing while asleep; I can only imagine how creepy that must look to the onlooker: A huge grin across my face 🙂 Thank you for the information. I’ve always chalked it up to, I’m happy, what else more could it be? 😉
It’s an unfortunate name I feel for the condition: laughing without a social causation. I believe it deserves a richer name, to reflect the rich inner life that causes it. I’ve had the same thing all my life. However when I wake up I continue to find the dream amusing and the whole thing so ridiculous it makes me laugh all the more. Nothing is funnier than true absurdity and the combination of the outrageous dream situation and the hilarity of waking up in bed laughing about it are deadly. Everyone in earshot gets woken up and all I can do is laugh even harder because of it, and leave for a while until I can come back to bed with a straight face. Even in retrospect it seems funny. It’s too bad to wake up and not see the humor in it anymore, and miss the rest of the fun of laughing while awake as well…
I’m currently deployed to western Africa, and I sleep in a tent with 7 other men. I woke up the whole tent one night laughing in my sleep. I was told that I sounded like Vincent Price cackling haunting laughter throughout the tent. I remember what I dreamt; I was watching John Kerry get into a fight with a Muslim Cleric (you had to be there I suppose). I apologized profusely and blamed it on my malaria medication.
Also; you are an awesome writer.