sleeeeep it's something every
human-being does at every age and yet
who feels like you get enough sleep
you're not alone most adults don't get
enough sleep and that's not good for our
physical our psychological and our
emotional health sleep matters to our
well-being so you can imagine my
surprise when a student came and asked
from my opinion about texting during
sleep frankly I asked her to repeat the
question but in today's world almost
everyone has a cellphone and the
upgrades have made these cell phones
smart data devices that we can use to go
online to create and share music and
photos and to use an unbelievable number
of apps for many calling and texting is
the primary mode of personal
communication texting is especially high
in adolescents and young adults they can
exchange as many as 60 to 100 texts a
day and this texting it doesn't stop at
bedtime and so the new behavior of sleep
texting is a technology trend sleep
texting is exactly what it sounds like
the phone receives a message the sleeper
hears the buzz or the beep of the phone
and instinctively reaches for it and
answers while still asleep now
this can happen once or multiple times
during sleep and it impacts the duration
and the quality of sleep now mostly
texts
the gibberish you know they're
nonsensical responses to messages
they're mostly embarrassing and they're
not dangerous especially the posts by
the adolescence and the young adults
sleep texting however in a work
environment may have a different outcome
or consequence when asleep text is sent
and received by a boss or a patient a
client an administrator or colleague to
better understand and to learn more
about technology use and sleep I
conducted a research project with
college students asking about their cell
phone use in sleep the goals of the
research study were to explore
technology use in sleep influence of
Technology on sleep patterns and whether
or not students who sleep text are
different than students who don't
I had 372 college students in my study
most were female and 100% had a
smartphone a data device most of the
students had those phones on why they
were sleeping males were more likely to
have it on a table females were more
likely to have it in bed on their chest
or next to their pillow when asked how
many or how often have you sleep texted
a quarter of the sample responded they
have sleep texted and they're not muting
or silencing or turning off their phone
what is of concern is that many of the
students did not remember the behavior
of sleep texting so how do they know
their sleep texting right
the overwhelming majority are checking
their phone histories this use of a
phone history to cue memory suggests
that the behavior is not new and they've
done it before now the numbers may be
underestimated because they're not
remembering the behavior and the data
doesn't have any information in terms of
how many texts were sent or when during
the sleep cycle but it's important for
us to remember that that the smartphone
is not the only piece of tech in the
room with the college student and we
know that individuals who have four or
more devices with them at sleep time
report less sleep and less quality of
sleep than individuals who have three or
fewer so what does that mean then well
the data didn't tell us exactly what
they're sending but the data did tell us
about what they're doing to control
their sleep texting behaviors one
student shared I can't turn the phone
off and I can't get it out of my bed so
I wear mittens because you can't text in
mittens another student said he wears
socks and achieves the same outcome one
student shared isleep text and I dream
about sleep texting and it's weird she
said to dream of it and not do it and
then to do it but not dream about it
and a senior said why are you studying
this I mean everybody's doing it
everybody so why would you study
something everybody's doing well I did
study yet right and what I found is that
technology
influencing the sleep of college
students they are responding to
technology in their sleep because it's
in the bed with them and they're not
turning it off phones need to be out of
the bed and they need to be turned off
the devices all need to be able to do
that and the findings support that the
students are sleep texting but not
remembering and this not remembering is
leading them to use their phone
histories as a cue which suggests it's
not a new behavior so what can we do
right what can we do well we we can turn
the phone's off we can turn the devices
off and we can use sleep as a gateway
topic to ask as nurses providers
educators parents about sleep and sleep
quality duration of sleep and technology
use before and during sleep and we can
really encourage good sleep techniques
like limiting daytime napping having a
regular routine avoiding stimulants and
caffeine exercising for good health and
for good sleep and we can move the
technology out of the bedroom and we can
turn those devices off or mute them or
program them the sanctity of our sleep
deserves protection now more than ever
we need to turn the devices off and we
need to get them out of the bed to
control sleep texting
and to control technology use during
sleep means turning them off it means
putting a phone or a smart phone
especially on a table an arm's length
away it means being able to reclaim our
space and not to allow technology to
interfere where we are becoming
individuals who can't separate our
waking from our sleeping activities what
are we gonna do about this okay
well students have said I can't turn it
off and I can't get it out of bed so who
controls the technology whoo thank you
human beings have these wonderful thumbs
and fingers that we can use to program
our devices we use them to download apps
onto our devices and we can use them to
turn off our devices we can use this
ability to control our technology and
not be programmed by our technology at
sleep time phones are not our friends
and they need to be off or programmed
think about that when it's time for
sleep and get a nap and put your phone
to sleep knowing while you're sleeping
your phone is resting peacefully and
quietly on the other side of the room
please
waiting for you you to wake up rested
refreshed and ready for a new day sweet
dreams and good night
you
[Applause]