Sonnambulexting
Sonnambulexting (verb) 1. the act of sending text messages while asleep with no recollection of it in the morning. Origins: totally made up by me about 2 hours ago.
I did a Google search on "texting while asleep," wondering if there was an actual term for it. No specific term popped up, but hundreds of news stories and medical studies did. The short of it is that it is a "new" sleep disorder, and it is believed to be caused by stress among other things. Go figure.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's back up to about 4:00 yesterday afternoon.
It was a long day at school. I hit the ground running and I never stopped. Usually I have one or two classes that are "easy," but not yesterday. All of my plan periods & breaks had me running around like crazy. Topping that all off was that I was a little sleep-deprived because of the hour-long overnight sexting with P. I had to stay late to make an appearance at the PTO school carnival, so after dismissal I was sitting at my desk "working." (Actually, I was finishing up the previous blog post!) Once I hit "publish" on that, I felt like I'd been hit with a ton of bricks. I was so exhausted, I could have laid my head down on my desk and been out immediately.
I'm an insomniac. This rarely happens to me.
I kept myself awake to make my appearance, but I was developing a doozie of a headache and slipped out as soon as I could. I went home and forced myself to stay awake as I made dinner, watched a little TV, took a hot bubble bath to placate my unhappy lady parts, and then I was in bed by 8:30. A little before 9:00, I sent P a text that just said: "What. A. Day." I didn't expect a reply -- he doesn't do the small talk stuff, really, at least via text -- and I was down and out, completely dead to the world, by 9:20.
At 7:30 this morning, my alarm goes off. Normal. Except my cell phone wasn't plugged in (I always charge it overnight) and it was on the pillow next to me instead of on my nightstand. Hmmm. I was groggy after 10 solid hours of sleep, but I merely plugged my phone in and started my day.
At about 10:45 I got my answer to the peculiar placement of my phone this morning. I was heading home from work and getting ready to text a colleague about something. I have an iPhone, and fellow iPhone owners know that your text message list will have the recipient's name in bold and below that in gray letters the first several words of the last text sent or received. I was not surprised to see P's name at the top of the list as the most recent text. What I was surprised to see were words I didn't remember sending or receiving.
I pulled up our conversation. At 10:18, he replied to the text I'd sent. I sent him a response.
I was completely stunned. I was shocked and speechless. I have absolutely NO recollection whatsoever of this happening. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. The only other time I know I've "lost" life events while asleep was back in 2005/early 2006 when I gave a faculty recital at the college I was teaching at. A couple friends came over to Tampa from Miami to collaborate with me. Since the recital was in the afternoon, they drove back that night. They were to call me when they got home. The next morning I insisted they hadn't. But, they had.
In that case, a prescription medication I was taking for my insomnia & depression -- Sinequan -- was to blame. It can cause short-term memory loss. It also explained why I'd had a hell of a time getting that recital memorized and why I had more memory slips that afternoon than ever. I called my doctor and we changed meds that day.
But as to last night's event, I have no prescription drugs to blame, merely exhaustion. Every other time P has texted me once I've been in bed, I have distinctly remembered. Hearing his text message tone gives me a little adrenaline rush, especially when it is at night and we've been recently sexting. And I have to admit, I was kind of expecting, being a Friday night, an overnight booty call request. In hindsight, I'm really glad that didn't happen. If I didn't remember answering a text message, I definitely shouldn't have been driving.
I'm also really glad I didn't send a bad text. I don't mean "bad" as in naughty or racy or suggestive. I mean bad as in "I would never say this to you unless I was really angry or otherwise incapable of filtering my thoughts before they became words." I don't necessarily have anything like that to say to P, except maybe "enough already with the size of your penis" or some complaint about how I haven't gotten to see him in a week, but I'm still thanking God for small favors.
And apparently I need to continue to catch up on my sleep. Maybe a nap is in order today...
I did a Google search on "texting while asleep," wondering if there was an actual term for it. No specific term popped up, but hundreds of news stories and medical studies did. The short of it is that it is a "new" sleep disorder, and it is believed to be caused by stress among other things. Go figure.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's back up to about 4:00 yesterday afternoon.
It was a long day at school. I hit the ground running and I never stopped. Usually I have one or two classes that are "easy," but not yesterday. All of my plan periods & breaks had me running around like crazy. Topping that all off was that I was a little sleep-deprived because of the hour-long overnight sexting with P. I had to stay late to make an appearance at the PTO school carnival, so after dismissal I was sitting at my desk "working." (Actually, I was finishing up the previous blog post!) Once I hit "publish" on that, I felt like I'd been hit with a ton of bricks. I was so exhausted, I could have laid my head down on my desk and been out immediately.
I'm an insomniac. This rarely happens to me.
I kept myself awake to make my appearance, but I was developing a doozie of a headache and slipped out as soon as I could. I went home and forced myself to stay awake as I made dinner, watched a little TV, took a hot bubble bath to placate my unhappy lady parts, and then I was in bed by 8:30. A little before 9:00, I sent P a text that just said: "What. A. Day." I didn't expect a reply -- he doesn't do the small talk stuff, really, at least via text -- and I was down and out, completely dead to the world, by 9:20.
At 7:30 this morning, my alarm goes off. Normal. Except my cell phone wasn't plugged in (I always charge it overnight) and it was on the pillow next to me instead of on my nightstand. Hmmm. I was groggy after 10 solid hours of sleep, but I merely plugged my phone in and started my day.
At about 10:45 I got my answer to the peculiar placement of my phone this morning. I was heading home from work and getting ready to text a colleague about something. I have an iPhone, and fellow iPhone owners know that your text message list will have the recipient's name in bold and below that in gray letters the first several words of the last text sent or received. I was not surprised to see P's name at the top of the list as the most recent text. What I was surprised to see were words I didn't remember sending or receiving.
I pulled up our conversation. At 10:18, he replied to the text I'd sent. I sent him a response.
I was completely stunned. I was shocked and speechless. I have absolutely NO recollection whatsoever of this happening. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. The only other time I know I've "lost" life events while asleep was back in 2005/early 2006 when I gave a faculty recital at the college I was teaching at. A couple friends came over to Tampa from Miami to collaborate with me. Since the recital was in the afternoon, they drove back that night. They were to call me when they got home. The next morning I insisted they hadn't. But, they had.
In that case, a prescription medication I was taking for my insomnia & depression -- Sinequan -- was to blame. It can cause short-term memory loss. It also explained why I'd had a hell of a time getting that recital memorized and why I had more memory slips that afternoon than ever. I called my doctor and we changed meds that day.
But as to last night's event, I have no prescription drugs to blame, merely exhaustion. Every other time P has texted me once I've been in bed, I have distinctly remembered. Hearing his text message tone gives me a little adrenaline rush, especially when it is at night and we've been recently sexting. And I have to admit, I was kind of expecting, being a Friday night, an overnight booty call request. In hindsight, I'm really glad that didn't happen. If I didn't remember answering a text message, I definitely shouldn't have been driving.
I'm also really glad I didn't send a bad text. I don't mean "bad" as in naughty or racy or suggestive. I mean bad as in "I would never say this to you unless I was really angry or otherwise incapable of filtering my thoughts before they became words." I don't necessarily have anything like that to say to P, except maybe "enough already with the size of your penis" or some complaint about how I haven't gotten to see him in a week, but I'm still thanking God for small favors.
And apparently I need to continue to catch up on my sleep. Maybe a nap is in order today...
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