accidentally bite my tongue or lip in my sleep

tar-heelz · August 2000

help!!!! For the past week I've been biting my tongue or lip in my sleep accidentally....what's wrong with me?

Ira · August 2000

Batang Uliran is a Sleep Disorders specialist, and will be in a much better position to answer this.

batang uliran · August 2000

Hmmmm, now that's interesting. Do you wake up after it happens or do you get up in the morning noticing injuries to your lips and/or tongue? On the surface it sounds like you have one of a number of what we call parasomnias which are a group of disorders that deal with undesirable things that happen during sleep which are unrelated to the sleep process itself. The candidates include - sleep talking, seizures, REM behavior disorder (unwanted actions during REM), sleep bruxism (clenching of your teeth at night). It is pretty hard to tell for sure without a sleep study (not that I recommend you get one at this point) but if I were to guess it would be bruxism since the other disorders usually occur in young kids or in much older people (REM behavior disorder). Maybe if someone else sleeps in your room you can ask them to observe you while sleeping and perhaps they can shed more light on this?

Invictus · August 2000

two weeks ago, i would wake up and find my teeth clenched on my tongue. i think this went on for around four days. i happened to be real busy that week because of exams, papers and a report.

my mom said that it was due to stress. how true is this?