Day-to-day stress has triggered an unusual habit of sleep texting - where people text messages even while sleeping, according to researchers.

People with this peculiar condition send incoherent messages while asleep to their friends and family - completely unaware of doing it, said researcher Frank Thorne, the Daily Mail reported .

"Patients reported incidents of sleep texting - were advised to leave their mobile phones outside the bedroom, it is one of those things that happen, but it is very rare, and certainly not a common trend," said sleep specialist David Cunnington. He described sleep texting as the result of having too much to do during daytime.

"People are doing so much during a normal day that it makes them feel like they're on call even at night," he explained . "It's so easy to receive emails constantly and get notifications from smartphones, that it becomes difficult for us to separate our waking and sleeping time," he added.

According to him, people struggling to get a quality night's sleep should keep their phones's out of the bedroom.

"If your phone is on the nightstand, then it will be more difficult to have a good night's sleep without feeling compelled to reply to a message or check your Facebook account," he said.

"The key point is that people need to respect their sleep, and make an effort to switch off at night," he added.

Sleep-texting reportedly seems to be the latest fad among today's youth, with increasing numbers of cell phone users text messaging friends while asleep.

Sleep experts said the phenomenon was a natural extension of the younger generation's reliance on modern technology. But they disagree on whether it is possible to send a text while technically being asleep.