Dreaming that you can't scream: why your voice won't come out

Why your voice will not come out in a dream: the short answer

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming that you cannot scream, speak, run or move is very common, and one of the proposed explanations lies in the body itself. During REM sleep, the phase in which the most vivid dreams happen, almost all voluntary muscles become extremely relaxed, in a state called atonia. The brain may send the command to scream or run inside the dream, but the body does not follow, and the plot sometimes registers that mismatch as a voice that will not come out.

The dream is not a sign of a spiritual attack, nor, on its own, of illness. It is also not the same as sleep paralysis: in sleep paralysis, the person is already awake, sees the real room and cannot move for a few moments. In the dream, the whole scene is made up. A common hypothesis, however, is that both are linked to the same mechanism.

Read also: Sleep paralysis: why it happens and what to do and Dreaming about being chased.

What happens to the body during REM sleep

REM sleep is named after the rapid eye movements that mark it. In this phase, the eyes move and breathing continues, but the muscles of the arms, legs and trunk barely respond. This lock keeps the person from physically acting out what they dream. In 1958, William Dement and Edward Wolpert investigated how eye movements, body movements and outside stimuli relate to the content of dreams.

In 2017, John Peever and Patrick Fuller published a review on the biology of REM sleep. The paper shows how REM mechanisms interfere with sensorimotor function and explains that failures in these mechanisms lie behind disorders such as REM sleep behavior disorder and narcolepsy.

Threats to the body also show up in nightmares. In the online study of recent nightmares by Michael Schredl and Anja Göritz, published in 2018, being chased and physical aggression were among the themes reported, exactly the kind of scene in which being unable to scream is most distressing.

Sources: Dement and Wolpert, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1958; Peever and Fuller, The biology of REM sleep, Current Biology, 2017; Schredl and Göritz, Nightmare Themes, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

The most common forms of this dream

When your legs feel heavy during an escape, the article dreaming about running explains more about that freezing. If the phone was the center of the distress, see dreaming about a cell phone. And if the one who really screams, without remembering anything afterward, is a child, the issue may be night terrors, which happen in a different phase of sleep.

See also: Dreaming about a shadow figure and Do animals dream? What science already knows.

When to see a doctor

Most of the time, this dream is harmless. It is worth seeing a doctor, preferably one with experience in sleep, when:

• episodes of sleep paralysis are frequent or come with a lot of fear;
• you, or the person sleeping next to you, notice that you act out your dreams: you shout, punch, kick or fall out of bed, something that tends to appear after age 50 and may be REM sleep behavior disorder;
• there is strong daytime sleepiness and a sudden loss of muscle strength when you laugh or feel emotional, signs that call for an evaluation for narcolepsy;
• there is loud snoring, pauses in breathing or awakenings with a feeling of choking.

Important: sudden difficulty speaking or weakness on one side of the body while awake is not a dream matter. It is an emergency: call emergency services (911 in the US) right away. If nightmares repeat and keep you from sleeping, they have treatment; see how to have fewer nightmares. If you are in intense distress, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), available 24 hours a day; outside the US, look for your local crisis line.

Sources: Peever and Fuller, The biology of REM sleep, Current Biology, 2017; Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

The trapped voice according to Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud devoted pages of The Interpretation of Dreams to the feeling of inhibited movement: trying to move forward and being glued to the ground, raising your hand and finding it powerless. He did consider the motor paralysis of sleep, but called that explanation easy and insufficient, since we do not dream about it all the time. For him, the sensation appears when the content calls for it, and represents "a conflict of will": wanting and not wanting at the same time. He himself dreamed that he was climbing a staircase in a state of undress, ran into a maid and found himself stuck to the steps.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung describes the compensatory function of dreams, which show what the conscious attitude leaves aside. For someone who swallows their words at work or at home, the voice that will not come out may be a faithful portrait of the day. It is a reading for reflection, not a diagnosis.

In symbols and faith. In the first book of Samuel, Hannah prays in the temple without sound: her lips move, but her voice is not heard, and the priest Eli even thinks she has been drinking (1 Samuel 1:13). Even so, her prayer is answered. For many believers, the story is a reminder that a silent plea also reaches God. In Brazilian folk culture, the feeling of being pinned to the bed has its own name: the pisadeira, a figure of folklore said to press down on sleepers.

Bringing both readings together. Physiology explains why the body does not scream; psychology and faith ask what you are not managing to say. Both answers can be true at the same time.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

The trapped scream in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for being unable to scream. The entry for a scream speaks of danger at home in life and of discord in love; the entry for mute, of risk in commitments in life and of pain in love. It is folk tradition.

Freud distrusted this kind of fixed key. For him, what matters is what the scene reminds the dreamer of: whom you wanted to scream at, and what.

Sources: L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900.

What folk tradition associates with this dream

In folk reading, being unable to scream is a sign that the person feels voiceless at home or at work; calling for help and nobody hearing, a sign of loneliness; finally managing to scream, a sign of liberation coming soon. In some religious traditions, the feeling of being locked in place is attributed to spirits or to a spiritual attack. These are traditional beliefs, for reflection, and they do not replace a medical evaluation when sleep is going badly. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.