unusual sleep quirks

[jake&zaxmom]

My 8 year old seems unable to determine for himself if he has been asleep. If we take a nap, he will get up and mention that he just couldn't sleep (I checked him several times and he DID sleep for several hours) he just doesn't seem to know whether or not he has slept. Or he will say,"I don't know if I went to sleep or not." This has been going on for several years. He truly seems not to know. No big deal...just sort of odd. Anyone else's kid do this?

Also


My almost 5 year old...when he "takes a dream" he insists on having the pillowcase changed or the pillow must be covered with a receiving blanket. The interesting (read slightly unsettling) thing about it is that he says that he "can still hear the words of the dream in his pillow" and he tries to quiet them by changing or covering up his pillowcase. I'm trying to be calm about my child hearing voices LOL He does sometimes say that "maybe the words are in the wall and not the pillow" He is always alert and awake when he tells me this.

[milehighmonkeys]

DD is younger, but she'll often say she slept when she hasn't. I'm not sure what that means, but maybe she thinks that since she laid down that she had a nap. Usually she just reads, though. I don't have any experience with your second question.

[nalo]

Originally Posted by jake&zaxmom

My 8 year old seems unable to determine for himself if he has been asleep. If we take a nap, he will get up and mention that he just couldn't sleep (I checked him several times and he DID sleep for several hours) he just doesn't seem to know whether or not he has slept. Or he will say,"I don't know if I went to sleep or not." This has been going on for several years. He truly seems not to know. No big deal...just sort of odd. Anyone else's kid do this?

Also


My almost 5 year old...when he "takes a dream" he insists on having the pillowcase changed or the pillow must be covered with a receiving blanket. The interesting (read slightly unsettling) thing about it is that he says that he "can still hear the words of the dream in his pillow" and he tries to quiet them by changing or covering up his pillowcase. I'm trying to be calm about my child hearing voices LOL He does sometimes say that "maybe the words are in the wall and not the pillow" He is always alert and awake when he tells me this.

I SOOOOOO don't want to be a freak-out post but I have a background in social work (and, hence, mental illness) and the fact that he is trying to quiet the voices yet finds it hard to do definately raises some red flags for me. Many children of course have imaginary friends and we all "hear" voices in our heads when we silently talk to ourselves, etc. However, the voices are coming to him when he doesn't want them to and he is having to adapt his life in order to quiet them and to sleep. I, personally, would consult a professional about this. That said, I just watched a show the other day about children who are able to sense spirits, auras, etc. and to also see what would equate to ghosts. It was incredibly fascinating and I suppose this is also a possibility, no matter how remote. That he does, in fact, have some sort of "other" sense. Okay, I know it could just be a weird kid thing but it just really stood out to me as somewhat concerning.

[MPsSweetie]

Amethyst is 6 and she tells us that she never sleeps, although I can check on her all night long and she is sleeping peacefully. :

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by jake&zaxmom

My 8 year old seems unable to determine for himself if he has been asleep. If we take a nap, he will get up and mention that he just couldn't sleep (I checked him several times and he DID sleep for several hours) he just doesn't seem to know whether or not he has slept. Or he will say,"I don't know if I went to sleep or not." This has been going on for several years. He truly seems not to know. No big deal...just sort of odd. Anyone else's kid do this?

DS has always done this. He will be 7 in August. Recently he has been sleeping in his own bed part of the night and he told me the other day that he looks at his clock to determine if he has been asleep or not. He can't tell if it's been 5 minutes of 3 hours, so he checks the clock to determine it.

[journeymom]

Ds, just turned 9, will occasionally come to us after he's been asleep for an hour or so and say he just can't sleep. He's rubbing his eyes, stumbling, eyes have that been-asleep look. He doesn't know he's been asleep.

Pleeeeeease don't worry about your 5 y.o. hearing voices. Children have an amazing fantasy life that helps them interpret and process reality.

[Kelly Jene]

My 7 year old also has said he doesn't sleep. I ask him how it got to be daytime then and he kinda shrugs. I've heard that it's because they fall asleep suddenly and sleep so soundly. They don't feel themselves getting sleepy. I know with my son he will talk to himself at night (playing) and then he's just out. Those are typically the nights he will report that he didn't sleep.

As for the voices, have you asked what he hears? Does he tell you about his dream? Maybe he is just having really vivid dreams. Maybe encourage him to talk about his dreams when he wakes up and see if that helps.

[leighann79]

My 6 year old has been telling me that he doesn't sleep for a couple of years now. I point out that he was sleeping each time I checked on him and he just looks at me. LOL
My 9 year old used to tell me she never slept and my DH was sure as a kid that he never slept either.

[freeflykami]

Interesting about your 8yo. My dh is snoring when I come back to bed from feeding the babe, but he swears he was awake the whole time

I think what is happening with your 5yo is what still happens to me. If I wake up during a really vivid dream it seems like it keeps playing in my mind over and over again untill I either fall back to sleep (and the same dream might start up agian) or get up and do something. If it was a bad one, I have to get up and go to the bathroom to make my mind stop trying to work it out, or make sure it doesn't start up again. Maybe he is just having realy vivid dreams. I know mine were VERY vivid as a kid and even more so as a teen. At least he seems to have found some way of letting them go.

[harrietsmama]

The 8 yo - I do the same thing, I can't tell if I have slept or not. For me, it usually happens when I am not having good sleep hygiene. A set bedtime and get up time help me, and sometimes I have to make myself get up earlier or go to bed later depending on school's in, jobs etc.

On the pillow thing - when I was little, and now even when I am having mild allergy symptoms, I hear funny stuff and it's hard to make it go away. I used t o think it was little people walking on my pillow Perhaps he just has his imagination intact!

[jake&zaxmom]

Dang! I must not have subscribed to this thread. I didn't realize that there had been any replies.

Yeah, my 8 year old doesn't concern me at all-it's just kind of odd.

I have to admit that I felt a teensy-weensy bit uneasy at the mention of "voices" from my almost 5 year old. He has such an odd way of phrasing things that sometimes the meaning is unclear. He is also still sorting out how to refer to the passage of time (i.e. a little shaky on yesterday, today, tomorrow, last night, tomorrow morning, etc.) It may be that he heard voices in the dream and is afraid of hearing them again but isn't using the right verb tense...dunno.

[Beth F]

Sometimes, DS is convinced that he is sleeping when he has not. Othertimes, he tells us that he didn't sleep all night. He's also very tired the next day. So, maybe he's reporting on poor sleep quality.

As for the words/voices...it could be a few things. Does the pillowcase have a pattern to it or lots of color or is it a solid color? I'd try a solid color to see if that helps. If the receiving blanket is flannel, get a solid white flannel one to see if texture or color makes a difference. How is his hearing? Does he hear well? Our ds and dd have excellent hearing (though it seems selective sometimes) Could he be hearing a radio or tv from within the house or the neighbor's house? It could be dreams. My dreams seem real to me even today. When I wake up, I have to remind myself that it was a dream. lol Also, sounds in the house are interpreted differently for a child that for an adult. The sound of a oil burner turning on/off or water going through baseboard pipes could seem a little more disconcerting to an imaginative 5yo.

[BunniMummi]

Originally Posted by freeflykami

I think what is happening with your 5yo is what still happens to me. If I wake up during a really vivid dream it seems like it keeps playing in my mind over and over again untill I either fall back to sleep (and the same dream might start up agian) or get up and do something. If it was a bad one, I have to get up and go to the bathroom to make my mind stop trying to work it out, or make sure it doesn't start up again. Maybe he is just having realy vivid dreams. I know mine were VERY vivid as a kid and even more so as a teen. At least he seems to have found some way of letting them go.

I would go with this assumption too unless something showed up to make you think it was more serious. It can take me a really long time to settle if I've woken up in the middle of a dream, even worse if it was unpleasant. When I was younger I had to have a clock radio next to bed, having music play when I went to sleep really helped to keep my brain from going into overdrive and keeping me awake. Now that I'm older I can "stop the voices" when I concentrate on relaxing but it wasn't so easy when I was younger.

Kids can also just make really strange connections. When I was probably about your sons age I had to wear socks to bed. Why? Because it was a sort of deal I had with the scary things (ghosts, monsters etc...), so long as I was wearing my socks then I was safe. It took me a really long time to get past that one. Even when I was old enough to dismiss the reality of it I still felt vaguely uncomfortable not wearing socks to bed.

[lactivist]

My 10yo ds1 has always heard voices. He had a tribe of imaginary friends when he was little. One of his first words was "Jimmy" which was an imaginary friend that he had from about 2yo to 6yo. He still gets lost in fantasy/imagination for long periods of time. He entertains himself very easily everywhere we go. As far as I can tell he doesn't have any mental illness, is happy, easygoing, gets along well with others, has friends, seems age appropriate etc etc etc. I think some kids are just auditory in their imagination and hear things that other people see or feel.

My dd1 is very sensitive and definitely has dreams that seem to linger into awake time. She gets in a semi-sleep, semi-awake state and would hear weird sounds, voices etc but would seem to be awake. She is now 16yo and can tell me all about her experiences and it seems more like a sleep disorder issue than anything. She outgrew it but still has a crazy dream world and sometimes sleep walks.

Wendi
mama to the weird ones!