Everyone has heard of the casual sleep-talker, sleep-walker, and even sleep-eater. However, something dangerous happened this weekend. Something so unpredictable that I’m not sure how to even describe it. I slept-texted.
I went to bed around 11:00 one night (yeah yeah yeah, you’re probably thinking that’s SO early, but I’m a swimmer and had practice at 6:00 the next morning). Anyway, I climbed into bed, set my phone alarm to 5:30 a.m., checked Facebook and my email one last time, replied back to two texts, clearly so popular, and then hit the hay. I woke up the next morning to my blaring alarm and no text messages. I was very surprised considering one of my last messages required a response. I checked my inbox and froze. I received a message at 11:30 p.m. and replied to it at 1:15 a.m. WHAT?! I had no recollection of reading the message or sending the reply. Panicking, I read my reply, hoping it was coherent and didn’t make me look like a fool. I could see exactly what I sent, and relief flooded through me as I realized the recipient would never guess that I was sleeping while reading and replying to his text. I laughed about it the next few days, thinking something like that would never happen again. I was wrong.
A few days later, I went to bed at midnight (such a rebel because I still had morning practice). I had been snapchatting people on and off all night and sent a final snapchat right before my head hit the pillow. Like the previous night, when I awoke I was shocked that I didn’t get a reply, so I opened the app . . . and my stomach dropped. I had opened a snapchat (couldn’t tell you what it looked like) and SENT a snapchat at 1:45 a.m. My fingers were crossed that it was a black screen since the room was pitch black, but my mind started wandering. What if I had said something or drew something or who knows what?? Because it was a snapchat, I will never ever know what it looked like and of course the friend who received it smugly smiles and continues to hold “it” against me (whatever “it” is) whenever I mention the snapchat. Yes, my friends are cruel jokesters.
So, like all curious people, I performed some quick online searches to determine whether I’m some kind of freak or whether other people have experienced this phenomena. And guess what? I’m not that odd (though I suppose some of my friends and family might disagree). It turns out sleep texting is not unusual (no articles appeared on sleep snapchatting). So . . . be forewarned. This could happen to you! Below are a few easy steps you can take to ensure that you never have to apologize for something you send in your sleep:
Put your phone three feet away from your bed. Yes, you can use it as an alarm, but do NOT keep it at your bedside table.
Turn your phone on silent. Do not even think about all the replies you could be receiving.
Put a passcode on your phone. Hopefully your sleep self will forget your password and be unable to access the phone contents.
*Disclaimer: If your problem worsens, it’s a proven fact that you can wear oven mitts to bed to prevent you from sending messages.
May the texts be ever in your favor!