Sleepwalking. Sleep talking. Sleep texting?

According to USA Today College, sleep texting, the act of sending text messages during sleep, has recently become a growing phenomenon, especially amongst college students.

In early December, The Lantern at Ohio State University explained: “Sleep texting is as simple as it sounds. A person will respond or send out a text message in the middle of their sleep.  Most people who do this usually do not remember doing it and it usually doesn’t make much sense.”

It’s similar to sleep talking and sleepwalking because the next morning, there is no memory of it occurring.

But Dr. Ron Salafia, professor of psychology at Fairfield University, believes it isn’t necessarily an issue of not remembering, but rather that the information can’t be retrieved because it never actually consolidates in the brain, similar to what happens during sleepwalking and sleep talking.

Researchers believe that sleep texting is happening because it has become so common for people to sleep with their cell phone right next to them, either on a nightstand or even in their bed.

“I often sleep text. I answer people’s messages or even sometimes send new ones,” said Fairfield University student Aidan Wildes ‘14.

Many say it’s because they use their cell phone as an alarm clock. Dr. Margaret Wills, professor of communication at the University, says simply to put the phone somewhere else at night.

“It’s unhealthy to have a cell phone in the bedroom,” Wills said. “Research has shown that the electromagnetic radiation generated by a cell phone disrupts a person’s sleep cycle and deprives them of the much needed deep levels of sleep.”

“Having firsthand experience with sleepwalkers in my family, I’m sure sleep texting is a real phenomenon. It’s not hard to imagine someone who frequently texts and has a cell phone next to the bed sending sleep texts,” said Wills.

Another reason for having the phone within reach during sleep could just be a matter of security, to know that they can reach for it at any time, which then can be linked to the issue of society’s major dependence on technology today.

“Many people, especially young adults, feel a sense of attachment to their phones and view the devices as a social lifeline that they can’t do without, even when the anxiety the phones produce keeps them up at night,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

But responses are mixed. The number of Fairfield University students who said they don’t sleep text outweighed the number that said they do. Some students said they had never even heard of it.

Regardless of whether people believe that sleep texting is or is not happening, according to USA Today, the phenomenon has been put in ranks with the other oddities that commonly happen during sleep.

“I don’t think it exists,” said Dan Jones ‘13, another Fairfield student. “It’s an excuse to send texts that you wouldn’t normally send any other time.”

Salafia agreed: “It would be possible to text during some stages of sleep but impossible during others. I seriously doubt that someone is actually asleep, reaches over, and texts, then just puts the phone down. That’s just not going to happen.”

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