Sleep texting, a new sleep disorder

A sleep texter… OMG! Have we become so obsessed with not missing a communication that it’s infiltrating our unconscious mind? It could be.

Kandi Gay, a paramedic in the US, suffers from sleep texting. She sends text messages and responds to them while she is sleeping. Like sleep walkers and people who eat while they’re sleeping, she can’t remember a thing the next day.

Starting a few years ago, Gay figured out she was doing it when her co-workers would tell her they were texting her the night before. Not believing them she’d check her phone history and see the text message conversations in full.

Dr. Akshay Mahadevia, a sleep disorder specialist working with Genesis Medical Systems, says it’s a relatively new phenomena that is becoming more and more common.

“They’re not totally asleep or awake in their consciousness, so they’re in a limbo state,” he told media outlet WQAD, “and that’s where they act and do these things.”

Sleep texting is considered a type of parasomnia along with sleep walking and isn’t considered that harmful. As of yet, Gay hasn’t done or texted anything embarrassing or inappropriate in her sleep. Thus, she’s not too concerned about stopping it… for now.