Wake up in the middle of the night? We have all heard of sleep walking. And, many people talk in their sleep. But, perhaps you should check your outbox for unusual messages. An article will soon appear in the journal Sleep Medicine that details the experience of a sleepwalker who actually sent strange messages while seemingly to be sound asleep, according to the New York Times.
More seriously, sending email while sleeping really interests neurologists who thought that activities like sleepwalking were limited to gross motor skills -- not actions that require cognitive processes. In this case, a woman not only composed messages, she navigated past two separate levels of password security to reach the email software.
The patient suffered from severe insomnia and was taking zolpidem, which is marketed under various brand names, the best known of which is Ambien. She decided on her own to increase her daily dose to 15 milligrams, from the 10 milligrams prescribed by her doctor, to counteract what she perceived as diminished efficacy of the drug over time.
Later, she received a call from a friend, asking about a strange email message that the patient had sent the caller the previous night. She had no memory of having done so. When the patient checked the computer and looked at a folder containing her sent messages, she discovered that three that had gone out within eight minutes the previous night while she was asleep, all with unusual capitalization, punctuation and language. “!HELP ME P-LEEEEESE” was the subject of one message, an invitation for “dinner & drinks,” and the message also implored the recipient to “come TOMORROW AND SORT THIS HELL HOLE Out!!!!!!”
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