Nightmare Scenario for Sleepwalkers: Sleep-Emailing

Paul Lilly — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:43:36 -0600

For those who often find themselves sending out emails in a drunken stupor, Google's Mail Goggles can help turn a potentially regretful exchange into nothing more harmless than a brain exercise in mathematics. But it might also stop you from sending emails in your sleep. Wait, what?

If that sounds silly, well, that's because it is. But it's also very real, according to the Sleep Medicine journal. An upcoming article will show how sleepy-eyed individuals can send emails without first waking up, and even use higher motor functions to input passwords.

As one might expect, those who suffer from an unofficial sleep-emailing disorder don't always make sense in their emails. One example includes a message sent by a female with the subject line "!HELP ME P-LEEEEESE," complete with awkward punctuation, spelling, and spacing. The same individual later sent out an invitation for dinner and drinks asking guests to "come TOMORROW AND SORT THIS HELL HOLE Out!!!!!!" In both cases, the sender had no recollection of ever composing the emails.

Sound like anyone you know? Hit the jump and tell us all about it.

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Nightmare Scenario for Sleepwalkers: Sleep-Emailing