The sleeping woman sent emails to people asking them over for drinks and caviar.It was only when a would-be guest phoned the next day to accept, that she found out what she had done. The 44-year-old woman, whose case is reported by researchers from the University of Toledo in the medical journal Sleep Medicine, had gone to bed at around 10pm, but got up two hours later.

She walked to the next room, turned 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. Each was in a random mix of upper and lower cases, not well formatted and written in strange language. One read: "Come tomorrow and sort this hell hole out. Dinner and drinks, 4.pm,. Bring wine and caviar only." Another said simply, "What the..."

The report says: "We believe writing an email after turning the computer on, connecting to the internet and remembering the password displayed by our patient is novel. To our knowledge this type of complex behaviour requiring coordinated movements has not been reported before in sleepwalking. She was shocked when she saw these emails, as she did not recall writing them."

I don't see what's so unusual... I do it every day in the office...

Daphne often felt drowsy from the white heat of the information super-highway.

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