How an iPhone deprives us of sleep and what to do about it
Masha Vorslav
We love different gadgets and social networks, but sometimes our hands are burning to take down all the trackers after several methodical months of filling them out, and I want the interlocutor to finally emerge from the iPhone. The disadvantages of technology - the kind of disadvantages that are a continuation of the merits - can now be attributed to another: a new form of sleep disorder, which blogs and online publications have been blowing about lately.
Sleep texting is the same sleep disorder as, for example, walking in a dream (The Atlantic called it “new sleepwalking”). Sliptexting is more susceptible to millennials (as if we have so few problems); not to say that this is unexpected for those who during the day, every two minutes, grabs the phone. Its essence is that two hours after falling asleep, with the start of REM sleep, a person wakes up and starts scribbling messages or statuses in social networks, often of the content for which in the morning it can be embarrassing. Inviting an ex-boyfriend for coffee, unflattering statuses about the current boss on Facebook, or some very strange messages like those that Twitter provides for the corresponding hashtag - all this can be slip-texting.
It sounds like a not-so-good excuse for avoiding responsibility for your words, but sliptexting, like any other interactions with gadgets at night, can be a symptom of overwork or one of its causes. Usually the scheme looks like this: a person wakes up, sends or responds to one SMS, falls asleep, receives a new notification that wakes him up, and again half asleeply types the message. With such a correspondence, awakening is inconclusive, therefore in the texts there are usually a lot of spelling mistakes or those thoughts that no one, being up to normal, would express.
Dasha Nifontova copywriter
I started to fall asleep and wake up with a phone in my hand from day one, as I had an iPhone. Facebook, twitter, instagram, toggle switch, messages, skype. Rinse, repeat. A month later, I probably lost my immunity, but I began to fall asleep not just with the phone, but also in the midst of discussions. Then, on waking, she began to discover that in the middle of the night she sent some messages. Here, it seems, Masha just came from me some crap.
Actually, it didn't bother me much. My digital behavior is not something that is moderated by me, and a couple of innocuous messages, which I do not remember, will not spoil the overall picture. It stopped quite soon: my young man was incredibly annoyed that I fell asleep hugging the phone, not his, and first thing in the morning I was flipping through the instagram tape. I really woke up often in stress, responding to letters, not remembering my name and where I am. My boyfriend just began to clean the phone in the far corners of the room. Now sometimes I fall asleep with the phone, but either I wake up and remove it, or I take it out of my hand Dima. In my opinion, the problem is only in the proximity of the phone, and so I do not see anything wrong with that. Well, the former do not write easy!
In general, slip-texting is not a terrible phenomenon and is completely fixable, if you suspend it in time. The only correct decision, and the truth, is to postpone the phone to the farthest corner of the room. From the more radical - turn off Wi-Fi in the apartment and not touch the gadgets (and the Internet) at least half an hour before bedtime. Well, in general, the blue light at night prevents the development of melatonin - the hormone regulator of daily rhythms, so that all screens at night really better push it away.
Illustration: Masha Shishova