Toddlers don't always want to go to bed at night. To make the nighttime routine easier for parents and children alike, there's the Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness app. Featuring a nice mix of bedtime stories, meditation routines, and soothing music, the freemium app comes highly recommended for anyone with young children, although it can be enjoyed by any age group. Yes, even adults.
Why Sleep?
Getting a good night's sleep is essential to long-term health. For children, studies have shown it's important for development since it boosts energy levels, improves memory, and helps with concentration.
Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness' main purpose is to help kids sleep better. However, as the introduction suggests, it also teaches youngsters about the basics of mindfulness. I know little about this, but have friends who say regular meditation has changed their lives for the better. No doubt, having kids start this themselves at an early age is also beneficial.
Use this app to help your kids fall asleep easier and learn to relax. With a premium subscription, you'll receive new content each week, along with other perks.
My daughter is 13-years-old. She would have benefited from an app like Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness when she was younger. She was (and is) a great sleeper in terms of staying asleep throughout the night. It was convincing her to calm down and relax before sleep that was often the problem.
What's Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness?
According to an April 2019 survey, 97 percent of parents surveyed said that Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness helped get their kids to sleep quicker. The same survey found that 95 percent though the app made bedtime less stressful.
To date, the app offers over 40 hours of original audio sleep stories, meditations, music, and sounds. Much of this content is put behind a paywall, although there's plenty of free content to get you and your child started.
Sleep Stories and music
Source: Moshi
The available sleep stories are between 15 and 30 minutes in length. A simple interface lets you go forward or back in 15-second increments. You can also set the stories to repeat as necessary. Thanks to AirPlay integration, you can listen to the stories and other app content on speakers and Apple TVs too. Each story is kept in the cloud, although you can download them for offline use.
In an interesting twist, some of the stories are read by well-known actors, such as Goldie Hawn, Patrick Stewart, and Brian Blessed. It's a nice touch, although I'm not sure how 21st-century children can relate to a star of a 1960s variety show. (No offense, Goldie.)
Regardless of the story, each one has been designed with soothing sounds in the background with the narration getting quieter and more whisper-like as it continues. At the end are musical loops that continue for a few minutes that fade away in a relaxed, tranquil way.
The titles in the separate Moshi music library have been designed similarly, but without the storytelling. Each gradually grows quieter to encourage sleep. A built-in playlist feature means you can play songs one after another as needed.
Meditation
Finally, there's the meditation component, which Moshi says has been designed to encourage positive emotions like patience, reflection, and the power of imagination. Again, I'm not an expert on this, however, I do have some positive experience using the popular Calm meditation app for adults. Knowing Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness has worked in partnership with Calm to bring meditation tools to younger people makes this a winner in my book!
At the minimum, it gives you another tool to make things easier at night with your children at bedtime.
Moving forward
Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness adds original content each week to ensure there's always something new for your kids to enjoy at bedtime. However, you'll need to commit to a subscription to access the new content.
With a premium subscription (purchased through the app), you unlock the app's entire library and gain access to the new content once it's released. With a subscription, you can also access content on up to three different devices. You can cancel your subscription at any time. A premium subscription is $39.99 yearly or $3.33 per month.
Moshi: Sleep and Mindfulness is available on the App Store and through Google Play.
