EXCLUSIVE: Do YOU laugh maniacally in your sleep? Scientists say it could be a sign of a serious health issue after studying a woman who cackled through the night for four years

Random bouts of laughter while you are sleeping could be more than just creepy for your partner to hear. It may actually be something more serious, doctors are warning.

Doctors from the NYU Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center-Sleep Center have been treating an extreme case of the condition in a 32-year-old woman from New York who has been laughing in her sleep every night for four years.

Her husband said her ‘creepy’ cackling happens several times a night, usually soon after she falls asleep.

Sleep laughter, also known as hypnogely, is a relatively common and usually harmless phenomenon.

Most documented cases of it happen during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, the deepest stage when vivid dreaming occurs.

And scientists believe the cause is most likely from laughing during an amusing dream. 

However, repeated bouts of sleep laughter in the nonREM sleep stage, or the sleep-wake transition, such as the woman in the study experienced, have never been described in scientific literature. 

The woman’s nightly nocturnal laughter prompted doctors to evaluate her for a possible seizure disorder. 

However, multiple tests, including an MRI of her brain, multiple sleep studies and an EEG to measure brain activity, yielded no significant findings.

And the woman had no major health issues doctors found they believe could be related. While she had been diagnosed with ADHD in the past, she had no history of seizures or sleep disorders.

During her laughter, her body did not move at all and she did not recall the events when she woke up.

She would laugh with her eyes open or closed, and her sleep was otherwise ‘uneventful’ with no breathing abnormalities.

Doctors said they were unsure if the patient was suffering from a type of sleep disorder or epileptic seizure, such as a gelastic seizure, which is a type of seizure that involves laughing and giggling.

Some medications, including antidepressants or antipsychotics, can cause sleep laughing as a side effect, but it is not known if the woman in the study was taking any medications. 

Stress and anxiety during waking hours can also manifest in various ways during sleep, including laughing. 

In rare cases, sleep laughing can be a symptom of a neurological disorder.

Unless it disturbs a person’s sleep or results in other issues, sleep laughing is mostly harmless and does not require treatment.

The study of the woman was published in the journal Sleep Medicine and researchers wrote it ‘provoked a discussion of…distinguishing parasomnia from seizure.’

Parasomnia is a type of sleep disorder that involves unusual and unwanted physical events or experiences that disrupt a person’s sleep.