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Texting in Your Sleep?
As crazy as this might sound, there might be some truth to the recently discovered phenomenon of "sleep-texting."
You heard that right: texting people with a cell phone while you're asleep!
I read about this strange story online, and apparently, a Texan newspaper wrote about it last month. In its coverage, a 24-year-old woman claimed to have texted her boyfriend while asleep, and discovered what she'd done only once she'd awakened. Another fellow wrote about it on his blog, so clearly this must be happening to more than just a few people. (Sorry, I can't say I've had this experience myself.)
The question is, does sleep-texting really happen when you're asleep? Or is it something that happens quickly during a moment of wakefulness in the night and then you forget about it the next morning?
No one really knows. It's entirely possible to perform a small action in the night during a few short minutes of wakefulness that you cannot recall the next day, but it may also be possible to perform an action that's so ingrained in your brain and habits that it's like driving on "autopilot." Today's younger generation is so constantly attached to their mobile devices (I think kids win hands down for how fast they can type on a smart phone) that working those cell phones and texting are second nature. It's an addiction unlike any other.
It's weird to think you can send a message in the middle of the night that you won't remember doing the next day. You just might find yourself in a situation where you actually do send a text you'd self-censor during the daylight hours.
I've said in the past that bedrooms should be a cell-phone free zone. They don't harmonize with the setting for restful sleep. And what if that phone rings back with a text from the person who receives your midnight message?
I say, put those cell phones to bed--in another room. Give it a rest. Your sleep will thank you.
This article is cross-posted at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: sleep, cell phone, text messages, texting
You heard that right: texting people with a cell phone while you're asleep!
I read about this strange story online, and apparently, a Texan newspaper wrote about it last month. In its coverage, a 24-year-old woman claimed to have texted her boyfriend while asleep, and discovered what she'd done only once she'd awakened. Another fellow wrote about it on his blog, so clearly this must be happening to more than just a few people. (Sorry, I can't say I've had this experience myself.)
The question is, does sleep-texting really happen when you're asleep? Or is it something that happens quickly during a moment of wakefulness in the night and then you forget about it the next morning?
No one really knows. It's entirely possible to perform a small action in the night during a few short minutes of wakefulness that you cannot recall the next day, but it may also be possible to perform an action that's so ingrained in your brain and habits that it's like driving on "autopilot." Today's younger generation is so constantly attached to their mobile devices (I think kids win hands down for how fast they can type on a smart phone) that working those cell phones and texting are second nature. It's an addiction unlike any other.
It's weird to think you can send a message in the middle of the night that you won't remember doing the next day. You just might find yourself in a situation where you actually do send a text you'd self-censor during the daylight hours.
I've said in the past that bedrooms should be a cell-phone free zone. They don't harmonize with the setting for restful sleep. And what if that phone rings back with a text from the person who receives your midnight message?
I say, put those cell phones to bed--in another room. Give it a rest. Your sleep will thank you.
This article is cross-posted at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: sleep, cell phone, text messages, texting
14 Comments:
Well i've experiance texting while being asleep,i've also had a full blow conversation with a family member while being asleep, and not remember a single thing when i get waken up in the morning because i apperently made plans with someone the night before. What i think it is either your phone rings while your sleeping and your somewhat wake up to answer the call or text and then fall back asleep, or if your the sender of the first message, or the one calling it may be that your dreaming of doing these things and are actually doing them, and then when you wake up you figure it was just a dream till you check your phone or someone mentions something about the conversation you had the night before.
You said:
"The question is, does sleep-texting really happen when you're asleep? Or is it something that happens quickly during a moment of wakefulness in the night and then you forget about it the next morning?"
Put me down as a skeptic of the whole idea of sleep-texting. That sounds like an oxymoron. Certainly we do a lot of things (some of them very embarrassing) when we awaken briefly, and then we may not remember them in the morning. But doing complicated tasks while really staying asleep? No way!
I have texted while I slept. Now mind you I am also taking ambien 10 mg and i dont remember alot about 10 minutes after i take one, but twice my husband has come home asking me what so and so meant (he works night shift). It has only happened twice tho. Also have had conversations while asleep and I remember very little or nothing at all and would know nothing about it without my husband telling me.
Cant say anything about sleep text but i too had a problem of sleep talking.. which my family members used to tell me. But i have no such problem now..For getting away with such problems it's to do right treatment..for knowing what is sleep problems and its right treatment..visit
http://sleeptreatment.com
Well last night at 3 am i had my cell phone ( im 15 btw ) and i called my aunt, i was talking to her but i thought she was my gf telling her ( this is what i can remember) Aunt: hello who is this....Me: Your mystery man........Aunt: who is this.......Me: idk you tell me then the last thing i remember is she would go huh and i would repeat.
Anyways i also managed to get onto 2 websites one being Myspace..
Is THIS normal, the only reason i remember is cause my phone said i called her and talked for 1 min and 22 secs and my web browser had the sites up...
How normal is this?
I'm on ambien and regularly sleep-text, sleep-eat and have also called and had conversations with people while sleep; weird but true.
I have a friend that does this. She is asleep and does't realize it. A lot of times its the last person to have called her, or sent her something. The things she texts are weird. She texted me one night and it said don't go in the yellow barn there's a scary cow in there.. and I replied to her are you up, and she sent one back that said up what? Thats when I knew that she was asleep. She has done this to other people as well, and has no recollection. They have all been off the wall texts.
I did this last night for the first time. I texted my friend saying "hahaha but, i'm still the inspriation for the book" yet i dont remember typing it and he showed me it on his phone. It's so werid i never thought that it was possible
um yeah i just woke up to find i texted my boyfriend. i said "Ugh i found the lochation of the resurant" (those spelling errors were in the text"
ok. I DO sleep text. and i dont wake up in the middle of the night i would remember if i did cuz every time i wake up i look at the time. i have woken up a little bit to my phone ringing when someone called and was awake long enough to press the answer button then i'd fall back asleep and talk in my sleep and i never remember the conversation i have to look at my phone and see how long i talked, one time was a half hour long conversation. a couple months ago my friend Will was texting me and i had been asleep i saw them the next morning and a couple of them he was saying "what, why did you say that?" and i didnt know what those texts were about til i went to my outbox...i had had a dream that i was texting him "how was chigaco"...i texted him the word "meow"....and last night my boyfriend text me that he loved me when he was at work and i just saw it a few minutes ago and i know i text in me sleep so i went to my outbox and saw that i had text him "mmmm...dont my yummy" i never had any dreams about texting him and i have no clue why i did that. i only whoke up once last night and that was at 3:06 in the morning when he called me when he got offwork...he text me before that at 1 a.m. i dont care what anyone says i do know when i wake up at night and i do know that i havent woken up and texted a person back without knowing it.
I've noticed I "sleep-text", call, talk, walk, and experience sleep paralysis the most when I go a day or more with out sleep.
When I sleep text, it's usually a couple of words that are actual words, then the rest are jumbled. My friends found out I was sleeping while texting them so they would play around with me and text me when they know I would be sleeping. Eventually I found out what was going on.
I will have dreams that I texted, called somebody, or spoke to someone in person and when I wake up, I am not sure if it really happened. Sometimes it really did happen, sometimes not. Like the time I was having a dream someone from my work stole my car then I actually sleep called them and told them I couldn't come in because an employee stole my car. I later found out I really did call when I woke up freaking out I was late for work and had a voicemail from them asking if I had information on this employee that stole my car. That was very embarrassing explaining I have a problem with sleep calling.
The times when I would sleep call people, they would say I called them freaking out and they can't understand me. I've noticed it's usually when I have nightmares, which is when my sleep paralysis occurs as well.
I had a dream this morning that I took ambien (I don't really take) and I was going die. My roommate said he saw me walking around freaking out that I couldn't feel things and I was going to die then I got on my computer then went on the couch and fell asleep. I don't remember any of that.
Sometimes I will have to ask my roommates if I had a certain conversation with them or if I was just dreaming it. It's hard to tell a lot of the time and it gets very annoying.
the past couple weeks ive been getting messages from ppl around 11:00 and ive been looking back at those messages and ive been replying to them although i dont remember i. but the messages i send dont ake sense only some words or phrases. and it had just happened agin last night so i decided to look it up on the internet thanks for he info i thought i was crazzyy!!!
I'm sending creepy texts to my boyfriend.
one said, "Caused you have death"
what does that mean?
Yep I had this experience just last night. I got a text from a friend today saying that message wasn't for me so I looked in my outbox to fin a message addressed to a different friend from the one I sent it to and the message didnt't make much sense apart from a mention of firework which we were talking about yesterday. The thing is I dont recall much altho since thinking about I feel i remember grabbing my phone :S im sooo relieved it said nothing embarrassing :S!!!
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