“Kids fall asleep 28 minutes faster”

“Night wakings decrease by up to 50%”

“Kids sleep for 22 minutes longer”

These are the stats marketing the Moshi sleep app and they instantly make me skeptical and defensive. I am intimately aware of the complexity and nuance of sleep and sweeping generalizations, especially when aimed at tired, confused parents get me feeling ragey.  

And yet, months later I found myself downloading the Moshi Sleep app.

Curious yet? Have a seat and let me share my honest experience and opinion on adding the Moshi Sleep app to our bedtime routine. Allow me to set the scene…

My 6-year-old has always needed more support to wind down to sleep. She’s our highly sensitive one and like most sensitive kids, sleep can be tricky. Over time we had found what worked. Sure it was a bit long and required a lot of connection and presence, but we were generally happy to do it. Enter plot twist. After a big new nightmare, the moment before falling asleep became unbearable. She was terrified to close her eyes and couldn’t stop thinking about her scary dream. The solution was to tell her a long, boring, slow-moving story, (usually about unicorns) until she would drift off. 

What I had hoped was a short-term issue, dragged on. After a couple of weeks, this extra story became the straw to break the camel's back. I knew it wasn’t sustainable for me AND I knew we still had to find a way to help my daughter transition to sleep. While I don’t love the idea of farming out connection needs to technology - sometimes we have to use the tools we have. So I decided to test out the Moshi sleep app! *(There were tools and strategies we used during the day to support her nighttime fears, but I’m not covering those in this article)

When I first introduced the app my daughter was really interested, the interface is beautiful and full of lots of whimsical options! A lot of time was spent just exploring before finally deciding on a story. The first one we tried was Fluttercup’s School for Unicorns and it was a hit. Let me tell you, they do not skimp on quality! The story, songs, and narration are all superb. The story moved slowly and is punctuated with a beautifully sung chorus, providing the perfect lull in the action to drift off to sleep. We were captivated the entire 30 minutes and my daughter was very much awake when it was done. Whomp whomp. We listened to another 30-minute story before she finally passed out. I would not describe our first try as a roaring success. 

But we kept it up for a week and found two stories that she really likes. If she listened to one of the familiar stories she would usually fall asleep in ~10 minutes (this is after our regular bedtime routine). Any time we played a new story, she would often stay awake for the entire story and we would play one of the familiar ones afterwards. The new material is just too stimulating for her. I will mention we still lay down with her and listen with her until she falls asleep.

The good news is we aren’t hearing any more about bedtime fears. Instead, she looks forward to her sleep story. This was a big relief for us and enough for me to go ahead and purchase a subscription ($50/year). The cost feels quite high considering we only use two of the stories at this point, but I appreciate the quality and it’s really worth my sanity

I still sometimes get frustrated by how overwhelming and stimulating the interface can be. I don’t like having my phone in the room for bedtime (I actually find it distracting for me as well). My daughter often wants to look at the pictures for a bit and it feels very counterproductive to be looking at a screen right before bed. It’s not ideal to be enforcing boundaries about looking at the phone so close to falling asleep. Thankfully, as the novelty is wearing off, it has been easier to keep the phone out of sight. Picking out our story during bedtime snack would likely be a good adjustment and something we will try.

In conclusion: 

This is a high-quality app that did exactly what WE needed. It playfully distracted my daughter from her nighttime fears, helping her stay calm and fall asleep at the same time she usually does. 

While this app will not magically solve all your sleep problems, I would recommend this app to be used in combination with a solid bedtime routine, especially for children who have a hard time winding down.  

Quick summary

Pros

• My kids like it

• Effective in encouraging rest and sleep

• High-quality content; beautiful songs and narration

• Well designed easy to navigate

Cons

• Expensive

• Choice overwhelm 

• Graphics and interface overstimulating

If you are curious to try it out, there is a free 7-day trial. Moshikids.com