People do odd things when they sleep.
There’s the obvious sleep talking, sleepwalking, mumbling, and snoring. However, one thing that doctors report as being on the rise is the phenomenon of sleep texting.
Sleep texting is exactly what it sounds like, and those who do it do not remember doing so until they see sent messages in their outboxes the next morning. Doctors report that the action is most likely caused by the fact that teenagers and college students are always interacting with technology.
This interaction with technology is making it increasingly difficult for the human body to distinguish between waking and sleeping times, and according to The Melbourne Sleep Disorder Centre in Australia, sleep texting has been identified as a real medical occurrence.
Indeed, Americans are so “plugged in” that occurrences of sending emails or pictures while asleep have also been reported.
U. New Hampshire students are no exception to this current trend, though many people do not know that sleep texting is as widespread as it is.
“I had a friend who did it. But I didn’t think it was an actual thing. I still don’t see how it could be; I just saw it as a lame excuse for not remembering conversations,” sophomore Max Auger said.
“I do it all of the time. I’ve gone on Facebook and stuff, too, since I have an iPhone. It’s weird because you don’t remember any of it,” student Kassandra Sampson said.
Kathleen Grace-Bishop, UNH Health Services director of education and promotion, said that, although the specific problem of sleep texting has not yet been reported to Health Services, many other sleep issues have, and they continue to be reported.
“Students have been seeking assistance for sleep-related issues for many years. This seems to mirror what has been happening in the United States, where sleep is becoming more of a concern as research continues to indicate that we are sleep-deprived as a nation,” Grace-Bishop said.
According to Grace-Bishop, 20.6 percent of UNH students surveyed by the American College Health Association noted sleep difficulties as impacting their academic performance in the last 12 months. Having sleep issues is the number two reported problem, following stress at 27.8 percent.
Health Services professionals, along with doctors across the nation, agree that mixing technology and sleep is a dangerous idea. They advise patients to turn electronics off at least one hour before bed, and to plug the devices in elsewhere in the room, not right next to the pillow.
UNH student Jade Chandronnait learned this the hard way.
“It’s kind of embarrassing, but I do it [sleep text] a lot. I can’t sleep with my phone near my bed, or I wake up with an outbox full of things that don’t make sense and quite a few confused friends,” Chandronnait said.