Night Confusion

Night Confusion: noun. The state of mind of a child that wakes up only partially.

Have your children ever woken up crying but not been able to tell you why, only to drop off into a deep sleep moments later? Or maybe they try to talk to you but make no sense? At our house, this happens often.

A few days ago Monkey Son #1 woke up crying, saying he didn't want any of something, but I couldn't understand what the something was. I kept asking him to repeat it, but it made no sense to me. Finally, I just said, "OK, you don't have to have any." Then he grabbed his feet and said, "Can I borrow this?"

Another instance was when he was about 3. He woke up and said, "It wasn't a dragon. It was a sheep. Sheep say 'Baaaa!'" That was probably the most entertaining one.

As little sense as half-awake children make to us, I'm sure the world makes as little sense to them. When my brother was young, my parents had a smoke detector that talked and said, "Low battery," when the battery needed to be replaced. One night the smoke detector did in fact need a new battery. My brother went to go tell my parents, who did not hear the alert. Only...my brother didn't understand what the smoke detector was saying.

"Mom! The smoke detector keeps calling me a blueberry!"

Say it out loud. You'll get it.



See also: Sleep Action