Nothing in these riddles about sleep is scary: no monsters and no nightmares, and the one riddle about the dark is a calm one. Under each answer, one line says why it fits.
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From the pillow to the moon
Bed and bedroom has the pillow, the blanket, pajamas and a fitted sheet. Sleep itself has a dream, a yawn, snoring, a nap and a sleepwalker, and a dolphin that rests half of its brain at a time. Night has the dark, the moon, midnight and the night shift.
At a sleepover
Read one aloud after the lights go down and let the guessers whisper their answers. Stop while they still want one more.
For a young child, stay with the easy ones: a pillow, a yawn, the moon that follows the car home.
Questions and answers
What is a good riddle about sleep?
You fall into me every night and never hit the floor. What am I? Sleep. Another: I am a noise you make for hours and never once hear. What am I? Snoring.
What is a riddle about a pillow?
Flip me over in the middle of the night, and my other side is cool. What am I? A pillow. The set Bed and bedroom also has a blanket, a fitted sheet and a bedtime story.
What is a riddle about dreams?
In me you can fly, and you can be late for a test at a school you left years ago. I end the moment you open your eyes. What am I? A dream.
What is a good bedtime riddle?
I am asked for after the lights are out, carried up the stairs, and left on the nightstand with one sip gone. What am I? A glass of water.
Fill me from the kettle and tuck me under the covers. I warm the bed before you climb in. What am I?Answer: A hot-water bottle. It holds hot water, and the heat spreads through the sheets.
Flip me over in the middle of the night, and my other side is cool. What am I?Answer: A pillow. The side you were not lying on has had time to cool.
I am a blindfold you put on yourself, on purpose, to make the night darker. What am I?Answer: A sleep mask. It keeps the light out of your eyes.
I am a song you loved until the day you chose me to wake you up. What am I?Answer: Your alarm tone. No song survives being the alarm.
I am asked for after the lights are out, carried up the stairs, and left on the nightstand with one sip gone. What am I?Answer: A glass of water. It is the last request of the day.
I am the hairstyle you did not choose. The pillow gave me to you overnight. What am I?Answer: Bed head. It is the shape your hair takes overnight.
I am the only fight in which everybody laughs. The weapons are soft, and a few feathers may fly. What am I?Answer: A pillow fight. The weapons are pillows.
I begin with "once upon a time," and I am always followed by "just one more." What am I?Answer: A bedtime story. One story is never enough.
I hang over the crib and turn slowly. The baby watches my little shapes go around until both eyes close. What am I?Answer: A mobile. A mobile hangs where the baby can see it.
I have been hugged flat, and I have lost an eye, and I am still not allowed to be thrown away. What am I?Answer: An old teddy bear. The most worn toy is the most loved.
I have elastic at all four corners. I hug the mattress well, and hardly anybody can fold me neatly. What am I?Answer: A fitted sheet. The elastic corners will not lie flat.
In the old fairy tale, twenty of us were piled on one bed, and a princess still felt the single pea underneath. What are we?Answer: Mattresses. In The Princess and the Pea, the pea lies under twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds.
Nobody means to sleep on me. The movie is on, the blanket is warm, and the next thing you know it is morning. What am I?Answer: The couch. A couch is for sitting, and people fall asleep on it anyway.
On a cold night two sleepers share me, and by morning one of them has all of me. What am I?Answer: A blanket. Somebody always pulls it over in the night.
We go on after the bath and come off before school. On a lazy Saturday we stay on until lunch. What are we?Answer: Pajamas. They are the clothes you sleep in.
Sleep itself 18
I am a dream you have with your eyes open, usually at a desk, and usually while somebody is asking you a question. What am I?Answer: A daydream. A daydream needs no sleep at all.
I am a noise you make for hours and never once hear. Everybody else in the house can tell you about it. What am I?Answer: Snoring. The one who snores is asleep.
I am a party where the guests bring their own pillows, and nobody does much of the thing I am named for. What am I?Answer: A sleepover. At a sleepover, sleep comes last.
I am a short, light sleep, and I am named for a pet that dozes in the sun. What am I?Answer: A catnap. A catnap is a brief, light sleep.
I am what happens when you turn off the alarm and close your eyes for just one more minute. What am I?Answer: Oversleeping. One more minute is never one minute.
I get out of bed and walk down the hall with my eyes open, and in the morning I remember little or nothing of it. Who am I?Answer: A sleepwalker. A sleepwalker's eyes are open, and there is often little or no memory of the walk.
I sleep with one half of my brain at a time. The other half stays alert, so I keep coming up to breathe. What am I?Answer: A dolphin. In this kind of sleep one half of the brain rests while the other stays alert.
I stretch your jaw wide, squeeze your eyes shut and make them water, and all you were doing was sitting still. What am I?Answer: A yawn. A big yawn does all three.
I was supposed to last twenty minutes. You wake from me in the dark, not sure what day it is. What am I?Answer: A nap. A short sleep that ran long.
In me you can fly, and you can be late for a test at a school you left years ago. I end the moment you open your eyes. What am I?Answer: A dream. Anything can happen in one.
In old stories I visit children in the evening and sprinkle sand in their eyes to bring sleep and dreams. Who am I?Answer: The Sandman. The Sandman is a figure of folklore.
One of us is happiest at midnight, and one of us is cheerful at dawn, and neither of us has feathers. Who are we?Answer: A night owl and an early bird. A night owl is a person who stays up late, and an early bird is one who wakes early.
We are the only flock that jumps a fence one at a time while somebody lies still and counts. What are we?Answer: The sheep you count to fall asleep. Counting sheep is the old way to pass a wakeful night.
What do people say they take forty of when they take one short nap?Answer: Winks. Forty winks is an old name for a short sleep.
What do tired people hit that never hits back?Answer: The hay. To hit the hay is to go to bed.
Which part of you can fall asleep while the rest of you is wide awake at the dinner table?Answer: Your foot. A foot that goes numb and tingles is said to have fallen asleep.
Which question can nobody truthfully answer with yes?Answer: "Are you asleep?" Anybody who answers is awake.
You fall into me every night and never hit the floor. What am I?Answer: Sleep. People fall asleep.
Night 12
I am a bedroom on wheels. You fall asleep in one city and wake up in another, to the sound of the rails. What am I?Answer: A sleeper train. A sleeping car has beds for the passengers.
I am a soft cap that nobody wears outdoors. Long ago, before houses were well heated, people wore me to bed. What am I?Answer: A nightcap. A nightcap is a warm cloth cap worn while sleeping.
I am a thin gold line on the bedroom floor, just inside the shut door. I mean that somebody in the house is still awake. What am I?Answer: The light under the door. The hall lamp is still on.
I am eaten standing up in a dark kitchen, by the light of the open refrigerator, while everybody else is asleep. What am I?Answer: A midnight snack. It is whatever you find when you cannot sleep.
I am the phase of the moon that you cannot see at all. What am I?Answer: The new moon. At new moon the Moon's disk is not visible to the naked eye.
I am the word for animals that are active at night and sleep through the day. What word am I?Answer: Nocturnal. Nocturnal animals are awake at night and asleep by day.
I am the workday of bakers, nurses and night guards. I begin about when yours ends. What am I?Answer: The night shift. Some people work while the rest sleep.
I am twelve o'clock with no lunch. What am I?Answer: Midnight. Noon is the twelve o'clock that comes with a meal.
I am two words called down the hall at the end of the day. After me, only whispering is allowed. What am I?Answer: "Lights out." It is the call that ends the evening.
I follow the car all the way home, however fast it drives, and I am still outside your window when you get into bed. What am I?Answer: The moon. It is so far away that it seems to keep pace with you.
Open your eyes or shut them: with me in the room, it makes no difference. What am I?Answer: The dark. In full darkness there is nothing to see.
We are stuck to the bedroom ceiling. We soak up the lamp all evening, and when it clicks off we glow pale green for a while. What are we?Answer: Glow-in-the-dark stars. They give back the light they took in.