Recent study amongst families from UK, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Australia, demonstrated that sleeptrainer SAM from ZAZU gives on average 45 minutes of extra sleep per day.

Sleeptrainer SAM shows children, who don’t know about time yet, when it is time to sleep, by closing his eyes at night time, and opening them in the morning when it is OK to get up.

The research showed it took only 3 days on average for children (age 2-7) to understand the full concept of the sleeptrainer of ZAZU. In the 2 weeks-test period 100% of the parents experienced more sleep and on average they woke up at their preferred time 5 out of 7 days of the week.

Importance of sleep

Parents furthermore indicated that the extra sleep made them feel a lot fitter during the daytime. This is why sleep is so important for parent and child and why there is a World Sleep Day: It is during your sleep that your body is preparing for a fresh start the next day: physical restoration, processing and memorization of information, cleaning the brain of toxins, strengthening the immune system and regulate the mood.

Imagine being woken at 6 am by your over energetic toddler who wants to start the day, while there is no need to get up for another hour…..This is where sleeptrainers come to the rescue.

For young babies it can be difficult to fall asleep by themselves. For nine months all they hear is their mother’s heartbeat, voice and blood flow, which can be compared with the sound of a vacuum cleaner. Once born and in their own bed, without the comfort of a parent, completely silent or full of strange noises, in  a dark room, the world is completely different for a newborn. A sound machine can then be a big help falling asleep.

International research among families from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, shows that children using a Zoë sound machine from ZAZU fell asleep in half the time. Parents whose little ones usually fall asleep after 20 minutes on average, found that using Zoë reduced the time to only 10 minutes. The research also showed that Zoë had this positive effect not only at home, but also on-the-go, attached to the car seat or stroller.

Independent international research already shows that newborns will fall asleep more easily using heartbeat sound or white noise (Spencer, Moran, Lee & Talbert en Kawakami): Mimicking the sound they have heard in the womb for 9 months has a calming effect and makes falling asleep easier. Similar results were found in our research: Using a Zoë sound machine helps babies drop off to sleep in half the time.

Penguin Zoë features 5 pre-programmed melodies, to help children feel safe and sound: heartbeat, white noise, nature sound, lounge and lullabies. A built in nightlight gives a gentle glow in the dark.

Other features popular with our test parents are the wireless speaker, which enables parents to play their own choice of music or children’s stories. And the sound sensor: Zoe automatically shuts off after 20 minutes and re-activates if the baby cries. She will begin to play and light up to comfort little ones, helping them to fall back into a peaceful slumber.

By Merel Obermeijer

The search for Pam

As a sleep coach, I was looking for a good sleeptrainer that could support parents in the process of bringing their child to sleep. And that for 16 years already!

All kind of sleeptrainers

And in this period, I have seen almost everything;

Sheeps that open their eyes with such a loud noise that wakes up the child surely, even if you would like the child to sleep a little longer.

A ‘nightlight’ with a ticking clock. (Real story): A dad confessed to me that he had furiously thrown a sleeptrainer in the back of a closet. After 2.5 years of little sleep he did not only become crazy of the lack of sleep but the loud ticking of the clock made him even more insane.

A sleeptrainer with a clock that shows blue light. If you want to help your child building a bio rhythm, you should not have white/blue light in the nursery. And definitely not on the bedside table!

I could go on like this for a while.

Finally I met Pam

That is why I was extreeemely happy to run into Pam the penguin. This sleeptrainer has many advantages. For example the penguin is a wireless speaker, you could connect your smartphone with Pam and play white noise. If your little one has trouble sleeping in, research indicates that white noise can give an extra push in the right direction.

When your child needs a light to comfort him or her during the night, you can set Pam as a nightlight only! For example, amongst other colors, a soft red nightlight can comfort your little one. This is very convenient as it does not negatively influence the production of melatonin.

You can also increase Pam’s nightlight brightness, which is useful when reading bedtime stories. Or perhaps when you have to change diapers in the middle of the night! When your bedroom is not too far away from the penguin, you can use the wireless speaker function to play white noise. Perfect when you little one wakes up in the middle of the night and you can soothe him or her back to sleep from your own bed.

Pam suits all ages

On the bottom of Pam there is a clock which you can only see when lifting the penguin. This is extra convenient for older children who can get frustrated when they are having a hard time sleeping in. No alarm clock or phone on the bedside table that almost instantly tells the time but it works better to have a sleeptrainer where you can optionally see the time.

Pam’s sleeptrainer function works intuitively and is therefore easy to understand for children of all ages. During the night Pam lights up red, meaning it is time to sleep. When a child wakes up and it sees an orange light, this means that there is only half an hour to go before the green light appears!

An idea to overcome that half an hour is to tell your little one to read a book or play with his or her favorite animal. Green means OK to get up! Time to start the day.

How you can use Pam in practice

Waiting is something that children learn during the day. In sleep coaching sessions parents get training how they can help their little ones coping with deferred needs and learning how to wait. Does this work during the day? Bigger chance that waiting during the night or early morning works as well.

Waiting half an hour in the morning before the penguin turns green is something that kids need to learn step by step. When you have an active two-year-old waking up at the crack of dawn, you can use Pam to learn him or her wait.

Together with your little one you wait for three minutes in his or her dark room and play a soothing song through Pam’s wireless speaker. The next day, you extend the waiting time to 4 minutes. You stretch this waiting time until half an hour and then Pam’s color changes to green! A new day begins full of fun and joy.

Finally, this is personal; I really like Pam’s design. It looks good in every nursery and moreover it fits also in a teenage bedroom!

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way by ZAZU Kids.

Merel Obermeijer – sleep expert, pediatrician and mother of two rascals Noah and Loïs