WASHINGTON – You’ve heard of sleep walking. You’ve heard of sleep talking. But now, sleep texting is emerging as a nighttime activity.
It may be the next logical step in a technology-addicted society. Research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests teenagers spend about 90 minutes texting every day. One third of teens send more than 100 text messages per day and 80 percent sleep with their phones right next to them. More than half admitted that the phone interfered with their sleep in some way.
Villanova University professor Elizabeth Dowdell found that between 25 and 35 percent of her students sent a text message while they slept. In fact, Dowdell tells MSN, one of her students could get pretty sappy.
“A classmate texted her something about anatomy class, and her reply back was, ‘I just love it. I love you! You’re the light of my life,'” Dowdell tells MSN.
“Then there was an old boyfriend who texted her, and she sent responses like, ‘I adore you, please come over,’ while she was asleep. She was mortified when she realized.”
Another example of a sleep texter, U.S. News reports, was a woman who resorted to sleeping with mittens on to keep her fingers off her phone.
Researchers say it’s mostly harmless though. Aside from reading the embarrassing message the next morning, of course.
WTOP’s Alan Etter contributed to this report.
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