Bedtime can sometimes be a challenge for parents and kids alike. Luckily, several apps can help create a soothing bedtime environment through calming sounds, stories, and relaxation methods.
Let's take a look at these fabulous apps that can help you.
1. Storybook app: Parent-child wellness, bonding and sleep
Storybook app provides a collection of engaging bedtime stories, meditations, affirmations, and many other options to help your child drift off to sleep peacefully and improve your relationship with them. Target age: Ages 4 and up
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Top features
Calming stories: A library of bedtime stories designed to be soothing and promote relaxation.
Soothing sounds: Ambient sounds like nature noises, white noise, or lullabies.
Customization options: Choose the narrator's voice, background music, or story length for a personalized experience.
Meditations: Guided meditations to help children relax and prepare for sleep. This can be a great way to wind down before bedtime and establish a calming routine.
Affirmations: Positive affirmations can be woven into stories or offered as separate exercises. These can help promote self-esteem and confidence in children.
Relationship improvement content: Stories and activities that can help strengthen the bond between parents and children.
This could include stories that model positive communication, problem-solving, or activities encouraging cuddling or conversation before bed. 92% of users say their sleep routine improved after using Storybook. Take a look! 👀⬇️
2. Sleepiest
Sleppiest with over 110 bedtime stories and the ability to set a timer for sound, Sleepiest offers a wide range of features to aid in your child's bedtime routine.
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- Target age: 4 and 8 years old.
- Features
Relaxation techniques: Sleepiest might incorporate deep breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation to help children unwind before sleep.
Sleep soundscapes: A collection of calming soundscapes that mask nighttime noises and promote sleep. This could include nature sounds, white noise, or lullabies.
Interactive stories: Sleepiest might offer interactive stories where children can participate in the narrative, making bedtime more engaging.
- Price
1 Month - $9.99
1 Year - $69.99
3. Huckleberry: Baby & Child Tracker
This comprehensive app serves as a baby tracker, offering sleep guidance and expert advice to help you navigate parenthood.
- Target age: Newborns up to 5-year-old
- Features
Comprehensive tracking: Huckleberry goes beyond sleep, allowing you to track feedings, diaper changes, pumping sessions, and growth metrics. This provides a holistic view of your child's routine and development.
Sleep guidance: Huckleberry offers personalized sleep plans and expert advice from sleep consultants. This can be a valuable resource for parents struggling to establish healthy sleep habits.
Data analysis: The app provides insights and trends based on tracked data. This can help you identify patterns and adjust your approach to support your child's sleep needs better.
Weekly summaries: Get a clear overview of your child's week, including sleep patterns, feeding trends, and diaper changes. This can help you identify areas for improvement and celebrate milestones.
- Price
Huckleberry Premium - $14.99
Huckleberry Plus - $ 9.99
4. New Horizon
This new app offers sleep meditations and stories to help children achieve a deeper state of relaxation for a better night's sleep.
- Target age: 4 - 12 years-old
- Features
Relaxation techniques: Categories for Sleep, Meditation & Stories (with a message)
Updated Weekly Content: The app provides updated weekly content, ensuring a fresh and diverse selection of material to engage and support children in their relaxation and sleep routines.
Watch content offline & Create Playlists: Users have the option to download content for offline viewing and create personalized playlists of their favorite meditations, offering flexibility and convenience in accessing the app's resources.
- Price
Annual Subscription - $21.99
1 Month Subscription - $4.49
5. Sleep For Kids
This app provides a variety of sleep meditations and stories designed to help children relax and fall asleep more easily.
- Target age: 1-12 years old
- Features
Relaxation techniques: The app offers a variety of guided meditations, soundscapes, and stories designed to help children fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed.
It includes original audio content featuring gentle rhymes, soft ambient sounds, and bedtime stories with a message, promoting relaxation and sleepiness in kids
Sleep Tracking and Rewards: The app incorporates a sleep tracking feature, allowing children to monitor their sleep patterns and earn virtual rewards, such as "sleep stars," for achieving milestones like bedtime consistency.
Offline Access and Custom Playlists: Users have the option to download content for offline viewing and create personalized playlists of their favorite meditations, providing flexibility and convenience in accessing the app's resources.
- Price
Forest of Sleep - $2.99
Bedtime Meditations - $2.99
Mindfulness Bedtime Meditation - $2.99
And more meditations (same price)
6. Smiling Mind
This app teaches mindfulness and meditation to help children relax before bedtime, offering a range of guided meditations and audio storybook readings.
- Target age: *- Ages 4 and up, teenagers, and adults.
- Features
Mindfulness & Meditation Exercises: Smiling Mind boasts a vast library of mindfulness exercises and meditations tailored to different age groups and needs.
Sleep Program: The app includes a dedicated sleep program with meditations and exercises specifically designed to help children and adults fall asleep and improve sleep quality.
Emotional Regulation Tools: Smiling Mind offers tools and activities to help manage emotions, build resilience, and cope with stress. This can be valuable for children and adults alike.
Focus & Attention Exercises: The app features exercises to improve focus and attention, which can benefit children in school and adults at work.
- Price
Free
7. Sleepy Stories
This app offers a selection of bedtime stories and meditations to help children relax and fall asleep more easily.
- Target age: 2 - 8 years old.
- Features
Calming Bedtime Stories: The app offers a collection of relaxing bedtime stories designed to soothe children and prepare them for sleep.
Soothing Sounds: Similar to other sleep apps, Sleepy Stories might include calming sounds like nature noises, white noise, or lullabies to mask nighttime distractions and promote relaxation.
Narrator Options: Some sleep story apps allow choosing the narrator's voice to personalize the storytelling experience. Sleepy Stories might offer this feature as well.
Timer Function: A built-in timer allows parents to set how long the story plays before automatically stopping. This can be helpful for establishing a consistent bedtime routine.
- Price
Monthly Subscription - $2.99
8. Sleep Hero
The app is very unique and fast in terms of features. It has an array of pre-recorded sounds, songs, and nursery rhymes and you can even upload your baby’s favorite nursery rhymes, songs, and stories.
One of the unique features of this app is that when your baby starts crying, the sleep app quickly starts playing your baby’s favorite selections of nursery rhymes, songs, and stories.
The app has only one downside which is that if the baby starts getting bored listening to the same tracks over and over again, then you have to record a follow-up album which is not as good as the original ones.
9. Sound Sleeper: White Noise
Sound Sleeper plays white noise sounds like the vacuum cleaner, rain and womb sound as well as lullabies.
It self-activates at baby’s first cry and you can even record your own sounds.
10. Lullaby for Babies
Sometimes all a baby needs for a perfect night's sleep is a little music.
The prerecorded lullabies of this app, which include simple melodies and lullaby classics such as "Hush, Little Baby" will soothe your little one to sleep. You can even set a timer to keep the songs playing for as long as you like.
Written By
Francisco Cornejo, a dynamic entrepreneur with a Masters in Communication from RMIT University in Australia, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Storybook. As a serial entrepreneur, he notably served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Honda Motors in Latin America, shaping the brand's regional presence. Passionate about family well-being and communication, Francisco leads Storybook in its mission to improve children's health globally, aiming to create positive impacts in both corporate and societal spheres.
Medically Reviewed by:
Dr. Lorena Koppel is a distinguished Child Clinical Psychologist based in Azuay, Ecuador, with over 26 years of experience at Monte Sinaí Hospital. She specializes in treating emotional disorders in children and adolescents, providing family counseling, and integrating theoretical and practical approaches in clinical psychology.
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