Research: Growing Epidemic of Tech-Related Sleep Disruption Includes Americans Who Text in Their Sleep

By B.N. Frank

The media has many times already reported doctors’ warnings about sleeping with cell phones (and other wireless device) nearby – especially ones that are plugged in. 24/7 exposure to harmful radiation and other sources of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) and Electrical Pollution (aka Electrosmog) isn’t healthy. Research proves it can also cause sleep issues.

New research reveals that sleep texting is on the rise in adolescents and college students and that this is not a new phenomena.

The results of sleep texting sound very similar to “Drunk Dialing”:

New research findings from Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing show that a growing number of adolescents and college students are keeping connected to friends into the wee hours of night, and often don’t remember doing so. It’s because they’re sleep texting.

Elizabeth B. Dowdell, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, professor of Nursing, is the lead author of a new study, “Interrupted sleep: College students sleeping with technology,” published in the Journal of American College Health. “The majority of the sleep texting students had no memory of the texting behavior as well as who or what they texted,” Dowdell says. “The lack of memory is not surprising as sleep research has found that people awakened after sleeping more than a few minutes are usually unable to recall the last few minutes before they fall asleep.”

Research has also determined that exposure to blue light from screens can disrupt sleep as well as cause macular degeneration and blindness. Research has also determined that exposure to all sources of cell phone and wireless WiFi radiation disrupts the blood-brain barrier which can cause it to leak. This can obviously cause many health problems. It can even kill brain cells. Does exposure to any digital, electronic and wireless sources while sleeping also increase the likelihood of impulsive or unconscious behavior like “sleep texting?” Perhaps.

Exposure can also cause increased cancer risk. A growing number of people – including quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel wife Giselle Bundchen – are adopting “electronics free” bedrooms because of all of this. For many years already, Silicon Valley parents (aka tech inventors) have been limiting their own kids use and exposure to screens. Recent media reports have indicated that they started going to more extreme measures to do so – even spying on their kids’ nannies.

There seem to be an increasing number of reasons to keep cell phones and other wireless devices (including utility “smart” meters) as far away from children, young people and everybody else while sleeping – and of course, whenever else possible.