A mum in central China was horrified when she noticed her nine-year-old boy missing from his bed and then realised he had sleepwalked out of their home in the dead of night.
The mum, not named in local media in Zhoukou, in Henan Province, rushed out of the house as soon as she saw her son had walked onto the street in the midst of a deep sleep on the night of 10th July.
CCTV footage shows the boy slowly stepping outside in his pyjamas and moving back and forth in front of his home.
The boy then makes his way towards one end of the street before turning around and walking the other way – frighteningly still in a slumber.
As he strolls down the road almost out of view, a woman can then be seen coming out of the house as well.
She appears to be in shock while looking in the boy’s direction and seems to be calling out to him.
A few moments later, the child runs back up towards the woman and the two re-enter the home before the video cuts.
His parents later told local media they were shocked by the extraordinary sleepwalking episode their son experienced.
What reportedly made it even more baffling for them was that the boy’s feet were injured, yet he felt no pain.
Despite the injuries to his feet, he remained completely oblivious, stumbling and staggering as he walked.
Thankfully, one neighbour’s dog’s persistent barking reportedly woke the young sleepwalker before anything worse happened.
Startled by the loud noise, the boy finally regained consciousness, realising he was standing outside.
Fortunately, aside from his injured foot, the boy was fine and safely made it back home.
His mum later told how relieved she was and shared footage of it on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, where it boasts approximately 18,000 likes and 11,000 comments.
One user titled ‘XIAO.WEI.YA’ said a comment: “A friend of mine did the same. In the middle of the night, and I also sleepwalked and patted my stomach with a kitchen knife, muttering that the watermelon was not yet ripe. Almost scared to death.”
Another user titled ‘Miss Gao’ wrote: “When I was a child, I often sleepwalked. I just walked around the house, but luckily I didn’t go out.”
And user ‘pan’ commented: “I didn’t know sleepwalkers can hear voices?”
