Free Republic

Imagine going to sleep and waking up sounding British. It's a real thing, and it happened to a Valley woman who has never even left the country. "Everybody only sees or hears Mary Poppins," said Michelle Myers, a mom of seven who lives in Buckeye. Myers is a former Texas beauty queen who has never even left the United States. Three times in the past seven years, Myers has gone to sleep with blinding headaches only to wake up with a different accent. The first time it was Irish. The second time was Australian. Both incidents lasted about a week....

Myers says she has been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome. The disorder typically occurs after strokes or traumatic brain injuries damage the language center of a person's brain — to the degree that their native language sounds like it is tinged with a foreign accent, according to the Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas.