title: Prevalence of sleep-talking in childhood.
abstract: This report is on the prevalence of somniloquy, as revealed by a populational survey of 2,022 schoolchildren aged from 3 to 10 years. Data were collected by means of a multiple choice questionnaire aimed at the investigation of sleep characteristics (sleep characteristics questionnaire-SCQ) and submitted to statistical analysis. The objective was to detect the prevalence of sleep-talk and influence of age, sex and socioeconomic class on its frequency. About half the children of all ages presented somniloquy at least once a year, but less than 10% presented it everyday. No clearmarked correlation with age, sex or socioeconomic class was found. These results do not confirm the generally accepted notion that there is a higher prevalence in the beginning of the first decade of life and suggest also the necessity of further quantitative and objective assessment of this phenomenon.
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires