R U Asleep? Sleep Texting May Be 4 Real
You’ve heard of sleepwalking. Maybe even sleep talking and sleep eating.
But sleep texting?
Some sleep specialists say the occurrence of this high-tech parasomnia may represent a new phenomenon — and it’s really not as hard as you might think.
“It doesn’t take a lot of motor skill or brain function to do certain things. You can literally do them in your sleep,” Dr. Adam Fisch, a sleep specialist at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, told ABC affiliate WRTV.
Evidence of this bizarre activity remain largely anecdotal so far; still, past research indicates that texting would not be the strangest thing for one to do while fast asleep. In 2008, Seton Hall University researchers published a case report of sleep e-mailing. Cases of domestic violence and even homicide committed by a sleeping perpetrator have also surfaced in media reports in recent years. So perhaps you should consider yourself lucky if the most unpleasant thing your dozing buddy visits upon you is a text message.
Fisch, for one, urges anyone who suspects they may be texting in their sleep to have their sleep patterns evaluated by a doctor – and keep their cell phone safely out of reach.
“The harm is the social embarrassment about what you may or may not say,” Fisch said.