The Strawberry Letter: He Is Scared to Sleep Next to Me

Dear Steve and Shirley,

I've been married for almost a year, and we have a four-month-old daughter. We currently live in a hotel suite because the water heater flooded the main level of our home right after we moved in. It's been a rough year so far. I haven't been able to sleep because I take care of the baby all day, and I also go back and forth to check on the restoration of the house.

My job let me work from home before I had the baby, and now that my maternity leave is up, I work and take care of the baby in this hotel room. I'm at the end of my rope, and my husband says he can tell I'm stressed. As soon as I was able to start having sex again, my husband tried to do it every day. I finally cut him off because I was too tired.

Now, when I sleep, he says I snore too loud, and I talk in my sleep. The other night, he said I rose up, looked around the room, and started to have a whole conversation that didn't make sense. I found him on the sofa in the other part of the suite the next morning, and he said he is scared to sleep with me.

I don’t recall doing any of that, so he recorded me the next time it happened. I saw and heard myself on the video—I was mumbling, cursing, and giggling. I tossed and turned a few times, and then I took one of my husband's pillows and told him to go check on the baby—all of this while I was asleep. It was just a little talking in my sleep, and I explained to my husband that I'm beyond tired.

Every time my head hits the pillow, he wants me to go to a doctor because he thinks something's up with me. Is it normal to talk in your sleep? Why is he so afraid?