My DD will be 4 years old next month. In the past few nights, she has started waking up more often. (She usually wakes up once or twice a night to go potty.) the thing is that instead of getting up and going to the bathroom, she will get up and wander around a little bit. She looks awake, but disoriented. If I talk to her or interact with her, she seems really confused, then begins getting upset as she gets more aware of what's going on around her. When I tuck her back into bed, she usually falls right back to sleep without any fight at all. (Though. She is pretty good about bedtime normally.)
I've been thinking that it is just her being disoriented from walking out of her dark room into a lit hallway (if she does it when we are awake and haven't turned out the lights yet) but tonight it took a couple minutes to get her to "snap out" of her confused state. She was answering us if we asked her a question, but in complete nonsense or something completely unrelated to our question. It almost seemed like she was still in a dream at first; she came out into the living room talking about how she "Had to keep him safe."
Is is something I should worry and talk to her pediatrician about, or does it seem like a normal thing around this age?
It sounds like sleepwalking.
It's pretty common in kids and most out grow it by the time they are teens.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sleepwalking.html
Additional:
You sure can talk in your sleep!
I'm a sleep talker.
When I was in school in chorus my Mom would hear me sing in my sleep.
To this day my husband occasionally has conversations with me in the night that I have no memory of in the morning.
A baby gate at her door. Don't lock it into place, but just lean it against the door frame. She'll bump into it and make more noise for you to hear. The moment you do, guide her to the bathroom, help her go and guide back to bed. Be quick and quiet. The more you "interact" with her the more she seems to be getting confused and upset.
Good luck.
My daughter is JUST like that.
Since she was a toddler. She was always like that For my daughter she was like that with naps.
But as she has gotten older, its less so.
It is sleepwalking. They are not totally awake.
Don't "wake" her when she is like that or talk to her nor expect her to interact when she is like that. Just guide her back to bed. And they go back to sleep.
Yes, they are a bit disoriented. Because, they are not fully awake and are in a sleepy state.
And yes, my daughter also talks in her sleep. Don't expect it to make sense when they are talking in their sleep. They are not awake.
My son was sleep walking quite a bit at 4. He even walked out of the house one night - that was scary ( luckily our alarm system had door chimes). Anyway, I did call the pediatrician. Ped suggested a sleep study but his sleep walking decreased & we never persued it.
I agree that it could be sleepwalking. My son did that some. He also talks in his sleep. Is it possible that she wasn't really "responding" to you in nonsense at all, but rather, just happened to speak after you did? My son never responded to me when he was sleeptalking, but he would talk. Sometimes he even stepped on the end of my sentence and of course it made no sense, because he wasn't responding... just randomly talking not in relation to me at all. And usually, I could only catch a few words and didn't understand the rest.
He is 15 now, and since he has gotten treatment for his allergies, he sleeps better and walks/talks in his sleep much less.
Any chance your daughter has allergies, or isn't sleeping well for some other reason?
I wouldn't suggest talking to me when I get up at night either if you want a clear conversation. She is awake, just not fully which is what a lot of us do which makes it easier to fall back to sleep.
If she were sleep walking she wouldn't communicate with you at all.
