Motherhood // Getting Busby to sleep with Moshi Twilight Sleep Stories

Busby has always been rather a challenge to get down to sleep. She has a very active mind and consequently, finds it very difficult to switch off. As a toddler she would fight naps, as a threenager she would proclaim “I’m not tired!” whilst rubbing her eyes and yawning, and since she has started school we get all manner of excuses about why she can’t sleep. Most recently it has been the clock change and that it’s ‘too bright’ in her bedroom… despite the blackout-lined curtains.

Nick and I have spent many an evening shaking our heads at the sound of her feet padding on the landing, whilst discussing ideas for what might help our exhausted, but stubborn five year old get to sleep.

Thankfully the lovely folk at Moshi Twilight got in touch a couple of weeks ago and offered us a trial of the new Moshi Twilight Sleep Stories app.

Initially I was dubious. I’m hesitant to use technology around bedtime because we’ve always done the bath, book and bed routine, and anything that disturbs that sacred power-down hour isn’t ideal. Especially as the children get so distracted as soon as they see a screen!

However, I did a little research into the app and thought “why not?”. Busby was making herself even more exhausted as the weeks went on, so anything that could potentially help was worth a go!

The app is free to download and there a few stories to choose from in the free version. There’s also the option to subscribe for a month or a year. A years subscription costs £20, which I initially thought was pretty steep until we started using the app; now I really do think it’s worth it.

How does the app work?

The app has two parts:

1. Relax

This section of the app is full of relaxing sounds and calming stories to help your little person chill out. It’s great for getting both children to relax after an over-excited bath (you know the ones – the bathroom covered in water, bubbles over each surface, A LOT of giggling – usually after consuming a punnet of strawberries for pudding!).

It’s also fab if your little one needs some downtime during the day. Post-tantrum… or even if they’ve dropped their naps but just need 20 minutes to re-energise.

2. Sleep

The sleep section of the app is the one we’ve used the most. This section is full of stories to help your child go to sleep. All stories are between 15-25 minutes long and are spoken in a calm voice with relaxing music behind them. Regular readers will know that I’m rather an advocate for hypnotherapy, and the stories work in a similar way; helping your little person relax, wind down and gradually drift off to sleep.

What I really like about this app is that you can add stories from the app onto a playlist, so they play continuously without you having to go in and disturb your child when each story finishes. It also works with the screen off, so I hide my phone in Busby’s room, turn the screen off and turn my phone over (so no notifications pop up!) and leave it in there. This means she’s not watching the screen and she’s concentrating on the words in the story.

Does it work?

The short answer is yes! It really does!

We’ve been trialling the app for over a week now and use it after our bath, book and bed routine. After kissing H-Bear goodnight, I go into Busby’s room, press play on the playlist, kiss her goodnight and tell her to close her eyes and relax. And each evening Busby has gone to sleep without getting up again.

I always add at least three stories to the playlist, which makes it around an hour long, and each night she has drifted off during that hour. It might take her a little while to get to sleep still, but she’s not getting out of bed and faffing around anymore; she’s lying down and relaxing.

We’ve definitely seen a marked improvement in her energy (and happiness) levels due to an increase in sleep.

She loves the stories, and now has favourites that she adds to the playlist before she goes in the bath. Bedtime has become a joy again, rather than a battle.

The Moshi Twilight Sleep Stories app is aimed at children aged 4 and above. We have been really impressed with the app – and the sleeping results – and would definitely recommend trying if you have a child who likes to mess around at bedtime too.

You can find more information about how and where to download the app on the Moshi Twilight website.

Hannah