Sleep Texting

We've all heard of drunk texting—the misguided attempt to connect with someone whom you'd likely not text were you sober. But now, sleep expert Dr. David Cunnington has reported that some patients who come into the Melbourne Sleep Disorder Centre in Australia have had incidents of sleep texting. In fact, he is now advising people to leave their cell phones outside of their bedrooms at night.

Are we becoming too connected during the day

that we need to "sleep-text"?

Interestingly enough, sleep communication is not a new thing, though sleep texting is. In 2008, a study reported on the concept of "sleep emailing," wherein a case of a woman who sent emails while sound asleep was investigated. Once she was awake, she had no recollection of sending the emails.

Cunnington describes sleep texting as the result of people having too much to do during their day-to-day life, and thus instead of "shutting off" at bedtime, "they feel like they're on call even at night." He said people who are struggling to get a quality night of sleep should keep their phones out of the bedroom.

"If your phone is on the nightstand," he says, "then it will be more difficult to have a good night's sleep without feeling compelled to reply to a message or check your Facebook account. The key point is that people need to respect their sleep and make an effort to switch off at night."

He does mention, however, that while sleep-emailing often had the potential to be detrimental to one's career if messages were sent to colleagues or bosses, sleep-texting is often less harmful, since the messages are more likely to be sent to a friend or family member—people who are less likely to complain or have a problem with sleep-messages.

So, the next time you send an ill-advised 3:30 A.M. "Whatcha doin?" message, just tell them later that you were sleep texting, not drunk texting; it'll be our secret.

[Source: Daily Mail]