Daily stress is leading to a rise in the potential nightmare of 'sleep texting', expert claims

Sleep specialist Dr David Cunnington, of Melbourne Sleep Disorder Centre in Australia, said patients had reported incidents of sleep texting - and he has advised people to leave their mobile phones outside the bedroom.

He said: 'We have had patients who have reported sending text messages to their friends and family while asleep.

'It is one of those things that happens, but it is very rare, and certainly not a common trend.'

Unsurprisingly, there are no studies into sleep texting - but a similar phenomenon, sleep emailing, was studied in 2008.