We’ve all heard of sleepwalkers getting themselves in pretty compromising situations in the past, but sleep texting could be just as dangerous.
Sleep texting as a term is pretty self explanatory – sending a text while you’re asleep and waking up with no recollection of doing so. Weird.
Oh the joys of modern technology. Whether it’s sending harmless gibberish to your mates or actually forming coherent sentences which you’d never want to say to anyone. Ever. It’s a pretty terrifying concept and it’s on the rise, apparently.
As it’s such an uncommon phenomenon not a lot of research has been done as of yet and isn’t yet medically recognised as a diagnosable sleeping disorder.
Speaking to The Debrief, a sleep expert at Slumberdown, Sammy Margo, referred to it as “the new sleep walking” and said that sleep texting normally occurs about two hours after a person falls asleep, as it’s ‘prime time’ to interrupt rapid eye movement sleep. When you’re in a deep sleep basically.
The beep or ring would lightly wake you up and subconsciously you will respond. Think of it as similar to drunk texting someone and completely forgetting it happened- but not being in control of doing so. Holy fuck.
The most at risk are teens, as they often sleep with their phones next to their beds and therefore more susceptible to sleep texting. Research has shown that four out of five teens sleeps with their phone nearby.
Dr. David Cunnington, of the Melbourne Sleep Disorder Center, previously argued to the Associated Press that stress and reliance on technology were also contributing factors.
People are doing so much during a normal day that it can mean that they feel like they’re ‘on call’ even at night. Because it’s so easy to receive emails constantly, and get notifications from smartphones, it becomes more difficult for us to separate our waking and sleeping lives.
But don’t worry their is a way to combat this- by simply leaving your phone and other devices outside the room (no shit). If you rely on that annoying phone alarm in the morning, go a bit not too old school and by an alarm clock. Simple.
I’m sure you’d rather that than accidentally sending your nan a filthy text.
