Watch out: tech has become so all-consuming, it’s invading our dreams now. CNN reports that sleep texting is on the rise, as more and more people reach for their phones at night and don’t remember it the next day:

The idea of unlocking a smartphone, opening a texting app and then typing something while asleep may sound far-fetched, but the “sleep-texting” term is a little misleading. It’s more like “half-asleep” texting, as doctors describe it as a state of rest where a person isn’t fully awake.

“It’s like your brain is on autopilot,” explained Dr. Shelby Harris, director of behavioral sleep medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

Are people really texting in their sleep, or are they just embarrassed by some of the things they wrote and looking for an excuse? And if you send a text while blacking out/passing out, is it drunk texting or sleep texting? If a cheating boyfriend gets caught sending off unusual nighttime messages, does he cry “sleep texting?”

Then again, as the article points out, sleep walking and other semi-conscious behaviors, even answering the phone, are well documented- so why not texting?

The diagnosis even has an article on WebMD, the 21st century home of hypochondriacs, so you know it’s legit. There, Dr. Michael J. Breus warns that the behavior could be especially problematic for teens, who are already glued to social media and their devices. At the same time, puberty and the stresses and irregular hours of adolescent life make sleep habits particularly difficult at that age.

What do you think- is sleep texting a real problem?

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