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We know about sleep walking and sleep eating, but apparently now people are sleep texting — and that sounds like a waking nightmare. A new survey from Villanova University shows that young people are texting in their sleep, sending potentially embarrassing gibberish from their half-asleep brains and not remembering it the next morning.
According to the survey published in the Journal of American College Health, one quarter of the 372 college students polled reported sleep-texting behavior. This is defined in the survey as “the act of responding to or sending a text message while in a sleeping state” — it could happen when someone messages you and you instinctively respond to the ping or buzz from your phone, even while you're technically sleeping. “The beep or buzz of the cell phone indicating that a call has come in awakens the sleeper, who instinctively reaches over and responds to the message. This action can occur once or multiple times during the sleep cycle, adversely affecting the quality and the duration of the individual’s sleep,” the survey said.
Waking up to text in the middle of the night and other phone-related things also led students to report poor sleep quality, and many of those who fired off sleep messages slept with their phones in their bed. Perhaps the scariest part of this whole thing is that most of those who said they texted in their sleep didn't remember sending that text the next day. (Can you imagine texting your crush some weird dream babble and not even knowing it?)
“The majority of the sleep-texting students had no memory of the texting behavior as well as who or what they texted,” Elizabeth B. Dowdell, the survey's lead author, told Metro UK. “The lack of memory is not surprising as sleep research has found that people awakened after sleeping more than a few minutes are usually unable to recall the last few minutes before they fall asleep.”
Through searching social media, researchers claimed to have found some prime examples of the kinds of weird messages you might send in your sleep. Some of those messages include “Lips I dripped it”; “I legittt wish veggird were enough to fuelme”; and “It means Girls tonight. It I 10.” Luckily, the survey noted that most sleep texts are only embarrassing, not dangerous.
The survey noted that poor sleep quality among college students is likely caused by many different things, not just the proximity of a phone, but regardless of the reason, it's important to pay attention to it. Lack of sleep can make studying harder, increase stress levels, and have many more adverse effects on your health.
Related: Sleeping Technique, Reportedly Used by the Military, Can Help You Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes
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