Are you a 'sleep texter'?

Ever woken up to a text you have no recollection of sending?

If so, you are not alone.

We've all had the embarrassment of sending a private message to the wrong person or autocorrect failing us at the wrong time, but the accidental sleep texting is on the rise.

What is sleep texting?

Sleep texting, basically, is exactly what it says on the tin: texting and using your phone whilst you are asleep. Sleep texting normally happens when you are drifting off to sleep when your body is in and out of consciousness. Unlike drunk texting, where you can embarrassingly and potentially shamefully declare your undying love for someone, sleep-texting tends to be a string of gibberish words, phew!’ 

Why does sleep texting occur?

If you are constantly glued to your phone and tend to leap into action as soon as you hear the notification 'bing', then it's possible you may be or may become a sleep texter. Sleep texters simply replicate (in their sleep) what they do during the day. The part of your brain that allows you to be conscious may be turned off (hypothalamus) whilst the area that permits movement (cerebellum) can be turned on. If there is minimal effort to reach your phone then the chances of you 'sleep texting' can be higher.

How to prevent sleep texting

Most of us have become accustomed to sleeping next to our phones or even falling asleep with them in our hands, but if you want to lower the risk of texting your ex while sleep texting, then you will likely want to heed some of our advice below.

• Put your phone on charge out of reach, if putting it in a different room is a step too far, plug it in at the opposite side of the room.
• Having your phone on silent or 'Do Not Disturb' will ensure the notification noise won't alert you to respond in your sleep.
• If you are glued to your phone, try not to reply straight away, wait a while and train yourself to not react to the noise.
• Make sure you are getting enough sleep, when we are sleep deprived we tend to do odd behaviour, try going to sleep and waking up at a reasonable time.

Save yourself the apologies, step away from your phone, and just stick to sleep talking when you’re sleeping.