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Are you looking for an app to make falling asleep easier for your child? Sleep apps have become increasingly popular for adults over the years, but there are also options created just for kids. Kid-centered versions of sleep apps are child-friendly, often including bedtime stories, meditations, and other features designed uniquely for children.
Still, it can be tough to choose from all of the sleep apps out there. In this article, we'll go over apps for kids that promote sleep - and how Joon can help make bedtime easier for your family.
The Best Apps To Help Your Child Fall Asleep
It's essential to help your kid develop healthy sleep habits. The best sleep apps for your family will depend on various factors, such as your child's needs and personality. Whether you're looking for a sleep app with free bedtime stories, meditation apps designed to help kids fall asleep, or another type of sleep app, this list will likely include an option for you.
Try Joon To Help
Joon is a to-do app and game designed for ADHD kids ages 6-12+. Alongside other healthy habits, Joon can help your child stick to their bedtime routine. Here's how it works:
First, parents download the Joon Parent App and customize to-do lists for their children. Parents can add as many tasks to their children's to-do lists as they want and change them at any time. Kids use a separate app called Joon Pet Game, where digital rewards allow them to take care of a cute virtual pet of their choice. To get those rewards, kids must finish the real-life tasks their parents assign in the Joon Parent App. To make bedtime easier, you can add tasks for your child, like bathing, brushing their teeth, or setting out clothes for the next day.
90% of children who use Joon finish all of their tasks, and many parents say that the app has improved their parent-child relationship. Even better, Joon is backed by occupational therapists, teachers, and child psychologists.
Click here to try Joon for free.
Moshi Kids: Sleep & Meditation
Moshi Kids: Sleep & Meditation is a sleep and meditation app with many features kids can use during the day or night. The Moshi Kids: Sleep & Meditation app promotes sleep and mindfulness and also offers emotional learning tools. Recommended by sleep experts and physicians, standout features include but aren't limited to:
- More than eighty-five hours of original audio stories, meditations, and music.
- Guided meditations and breathing exercises, both of which are practices known to help people fall asleep.
- Daily content tailored to your child's age and interests.
The app is ad-free and kid-safe. According to the App Store, 97% of parents who use the app say that it helps their kids fall asleep, and 95% say that using the Moshi Kids: Sleep & Meditation app makes bedtime less stressful.
Average rating:
4.7 out of 5 stars (56k ratings)
Cost:
You can use the free version of Moshi Kids or purchase a premium subscription. Users who opt for a premium subscription can choose from a monthly subscription of $12.99 or an annual subscription of $79.99.
Baby Mozart - Children Music
If soothing sounds and lullaby songs help your child fall asleep, Baby Mozart - Children Music may be an ideal app for your family. Geared toward parents of infants and young kids, the app features twenty-two white noise sounds, classical music for brain development, fourteen classic sung nursery rhymes (such as "hush little baby" and "row your boat"), lullaby music, and so much more. For daytime, Baby Mozart - Children Music features educational flashcards and over seventeen funny noises to make babies laugh.
While the app is free, users can pay for a specific set of additional songs or pay $3.99 for access to all songs.
Average rating:
4.8 out of 5 stars (1.2k ratings)
Cost:
Free with in-app purchases.
Note: Need help getting your child to finish important tasks like household chores or getting ready for bed? Try Joon. Joon is an app created uniquely for kids with ADHD and related disorders. It's rated an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars in the app store, with over 4k reviews from parents like you. Click here to download the app.
Children's Sleep Meditations
Children's Sleep Meditations is a kid's meditation app built specifically for bedtime. The Children's Sleep Meditations app offers a set of free meditations (plus many additional paid options) and soothing background sounds for children. The app also includes a children's breath feature to encourage kids to relax through breathing exercises. Voice actors who record the sleep meditations for the Children's Sleep Meditations app use calm, reassuring vocal tones to help kids wind down.
Average rating:
4.7 out of 5 stars (367 ratings)
Cost:
Free with in-app purchases
Sleepiest: Sleep Meditations
Recommended by doctors and sleep scientists, Sleepiest: Sleep Meditations is a sleep app for people of all ages, from infants to adults. The Sleepiest app offers more than twenty-five sleep meditations, bedtime stories, and relaxing stories for kids to listen to before bed. Alongside all of the stories you'll find with Sleepiest, the app includes sleep tracking features and over one hundred and fifty relaxing sleep sounds to ease your child's mind and help them get into a state of relaxation. This is a solid app to use to help kids wind down, relieve anxiety, and fall asleep faster.
Average rating:
4.6 out of 5 stars (25k ratings)
Cost:
The standard version of the app is free. To access additional features, users can select from a range of payment plans. Monthly plans start at $4.99, and annual plans start at $49.99.
BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep
Formerly called Relax Melodies, BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep is a comprehensive sleep app with many helpful features, including guided meditations, calming sounds, reminders, and bedtime stories.
To start, BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep has over three hundred sleep sounds and music tracks to help kids and adults enter a calm, sleepy state. Sound effects you'll find in the app include but aren't limited to white noise, nature sounds, and meditation music. The app also has over two hundred and fifty meditations and hypnosis tracks, including popular meditations for deep sleep, stress and anxiety relief, and gratitude.
As for bedtime stories, there are over one hundred sleep stories in the BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep app. You can choose from bedtime story genres like fantasy, history, fairy tales, and in this case, kid's bedtime stories.
All in all, whether you're looking for a calming bedtime story or something else to aid sleep, there's a good chance that you'll find it with BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep.
Average rating:
4.8 out of 5 stars (271k ratings)
Cost:
The standard version of the app is free. If you would like to opt for a premium subscription, you can choose from a range of monthly or annual payment plans. Monthly plans start at $9.99, and annual plans start at $29.99.
Sleepy Stories
Sleepy Stories is a bedtime stories app with fun tales and other features designed to help children get a good night of rest. Some of the bedtime stories in the Sleepy Stories bedtime stories app are short so that kids can get to sleep quickly, whereas others are longer bedtime stories created for cozy bedtime listening. You can select stories in the app based on your child's age. There are options for kids ages 1-3, 4-6, and 7-10. Other features of the Sleepy Stories app include soothing sounds from lullaby songs to classical music, bedtime yoga, and even sleep meditations for kids created by a family therapist.
Average rating:
4.6 out of 5 stars (151 ratings)
Cost:
The Sleepy Story app is free, but users can opt to subscribe for $2.99/month for additional features.
Good Sleep Hygiene
It should be noted that the above apps are using sounds, noises, stories, and mindfulness exercises to help with sleep initiation. Visuals on a device are actually counter-intuitive to good sleep and videos, shows, or games should be avoided. The blue light given off from TVs, phones, tablets, and other electronics delays the secretion of the body’s natural melatonin and makes it difficult for the body to use synthetic melatonin your child may have taken. As a general rule, blue light devices should be discontinued, or at least out of sight while you use the sound features of sleep apps, for 30 to 60 minutes prior to going to sleep.
Takeaway
It can be tough to get children calm and ready for bed. The apps in this article are great options for parents who want to make falling asleep a little bit easier for their children. Whether you're looking for children's sleep meditations, a bedtime story app, or something else, we hope you'll find an option that helps your family here. If your child experiences persistent sleep issues, consult with a medical provider who can help you find a cause and address potential underlying concerns.
About
Sarah Schulze MSN, APRN, CPNP
