World's First Case Ever of Using the Internet While Asleep Reported

The world’s first case of using the Internet while sleeping has been reported by the researchers from the University of Toledo. Their patient, a 44-year-old woman got up from her bed and sent emails to people inviting them over for drinks and caviar while asleep and with no memories about the incident.

It was only the next day, when a would-be guest phoned to accept the offer that she found out what she had done. She had gone to bed at around 10pm, however, got up two hours later and walked to the next room, switched on the computer, connected to the Internet, and logged on by typing her username and password to her email account. She then composed and sent three emails. She was shocked when she saw these emails, as she did not recall writing them. She did not have any history of night terrors or sleepwalking as a child.

Neither of the emails was well formatted. They were written in a strange language and in a random mix of upper and lower cases.

This kind of behavior during sleep walking is a novel to the researchers since such type of complex behaviour with coordinated movements has not been reported before in sleepwalking. They have described the new variation of sleepwalking as zzz-mailing.

In simple sleepwalking, the activities the patients do did not involve complex behaviour and coordinated movements such as typing, composing and writing the messages. She also managed to remember her password and turn the computer on and connect to the Internet, although she has no memory of the event.

The researchers suspect that the woman's sleep walking may have been triggered by her prescription medication, however, the causes of the phenomenon are not yet fully understood.