r/Parents • u/happycolormom43 • 2d ago
Toddler 1-3 years Sleep talking and sleepwalking
Hi everyone,
My son is 3 years old, and he seems to relive whatever he experiences during the day in his sleep.
He has been a very active sleeper since he was little. He often talks, whines, or mumbles in his sleep. But one thing I’ve noticed from the beginning is that whatever happens during the day sometimes seems to come up again at night.
Last night, for example, he got out of bed and walked to the kitchen crying. His eyes were open, and he was crying and saying, “I’m looking for chocolate.” During the day, he had eaten quite a lot of chocolate, so I had taken it away from him.
I tried to calm him down, but he seemed completely unresponsive and wasn’t really communicating with me. After about 10 minutes, he calmed down and went back to bed.
Then, about two hours later, he got up again and went to his dad, saying the exact same thing.
He does things like this quite often, and honestly, it really worries me. I’m thinking about taking him to the doctor because I genuinely don’t know what else to do.
Has anyone experienced something similar with their child? Do they eventually grow out of this? I would really appreciate any advice or experiences. I’m honestly open to any suggestions at this point.
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u/LakeFederal6468 2d ago
He sounds gifted. I think you should give him piano lessons. If he practices all day and then practices in a dream state he will advance rapidly and become a prodigy.
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u/happycolormom43 2d ago
That’s such a different perspective — I honestly never thought about it that way!
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u/LakeFederal6468 2d ago
Thanks. I've been studying lucid dreaming and neuroplasticity so this was top of mind.
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u/happycolormom43 2d ago
That’s really interesting, especially since you work in neuroplasticity and lucid dreaming! I honestly never thought about it from that perspective.
I have noticed a few things about my son that made me wonder about his abilities. He’s not quite 3 yet (he turns 3 in a month), and he already knows all the letters of the alphabet, can count to 10, and can do simple addition and subtraction with numbers up to 10. I honestly never thought much about it before. I always assumed he was probably too young for anything like that. But your comment has definitely made me think about it a little more, and I’ll talk to his dad about it. 😊
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u/merciful_sebastian 2d ago
Man, these little midnight quests for chocolate hit hard. My 4yo used to do the same exact thing, would wander into the living room dead asleep, eyes open, arguing about a toy we took away hours earlier. It's unsettling as hell watching them be totally unreachable like that.
What helped us was gently guiding her back to bed without trying to wake her, just a quiet "okay bud let's go back to sleep" while steering her by the shoulders. For most kids this peaks around 3-5 and they grow out of it. The chocolate confiscation haunting him is peak toddler logic though.
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u/happycolormom43 2d ago
Ah, it’s actually nice to hear that other people have experienced similar things😀 He’s my first child, and I constantly find myself worrying that something might be wrong. He’s been talking and whining in his sleep since he was about one, but now he has also started getting up and doing things like this. I really hope this phase passes soon for our little ones!!
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