I Used the Hatch Rest 2nd Gen to Create a Better Toddler Bedtime Routine — Here's How It Worked

Welcome to Skimm Tested, where we put products to the test and then give them a report card. (Check out all of our tried-and-tested faves here.)

The assignment…

To test the Hatch Rest 2nd Gen. I have a 3 year old, Lou, who often needs help accepting that it is really bedtime (like yes, right now), so I wanted to see if the Rest ($59.99) could help us establish a better routine.

Straight A’s in…

• Ease of use. The corresponding app is simple to set up and user-friendly. It’s nice to be able to adjust the volume of the sound and the brightness of the light without entering the room and potentially disturbing sleep. 

• Variety of choices. The (free version) of the app has lots of soundscapes, colors, and time-for-bed music to pick from. We chose “Countdown to Bedtime” and stuck with it for the duration of this test.

• Improvement of nighttime routine. On the third or fourth day of using this — I am not making this up — Lou heard the countdown come on, looked up from the book we were reading, and said, unprompted, “it’s bedtime!” It didn’t work quite that magically every night, but it definitely helped us make a clear transition from reading books in pj’s to turning off the light and getting into bed. 

• Improvement of morning routine. I want to caveat that Lou is a great sleeper who has never minded hanging out quietly until we come to get him in the morning. So turning the light green to indicate wake-up time wasn’t a total game changer for us. That said, anecdotally, I have heard from other parents that this is huge for kids who aren’t so happy to stay in bed singing to themselves. 

• Scheduling feature. The app allows you to set a schedule. For example, I set it to time-to-rise (when the light would turn green) at 7:15 a.m. every weekday, and time-for-bed (when the countdown comes on) every weekday night at 7:30 p.m. On weekends, when our routine is more relaxed, I opted not to schedule ahead.

* I do want to note that I am a human, and some nights we didn’t even have pj’s on by 7:30 p.m., so I used the app to manually bump the time of the countdown back by 15 or 20 minutes. If you are a more organized person, you might not have this issue. Nevertheless, it’s a helpful feature that you can edit the schedule in real time.

Room for growth…

• Price. This is on the expensive side. I wouldn’t declare to any parent that this is a must-have. With that said, if you can pay the price, it’s definitely a nice-to-have item with some very clear sleep hygiene benefits. 

• Extras cost more. I haven’t mentioned Hatch+, a subscription that comes with extra soundscapes, including “sleep stories” and guided toddler-friendly mini meditations. Those are available for $49.99/year.

Works best for…

• Long-term use. I wish we’d had this when Lou was a baby — I think the ease of adjusting volume and brightness would have been huge when we were doing middle-of-the-night diaper changes. And if we’d used the time-for-bed sound from the beginning, I believe it would have established a routine earlier on. To make the most out of this product, get it as soon as you can in your baby’s life (or gift it to friends with newborns). 

• All kinds of setups. Lou has his own room, but this would work well for siblings sharing a room; co-sleeping; or any other living arrangement. Because you can control the sound from your phone, it also means you can make it louder if there’s more noise to cover up, or softer if the sound is interfering with your own sleep.

Gets extra credit for…

• Design. The Rest 2nd Gen is sleek and pleasant-looking, and although Lou’s room is not particularly curated, it fits in well and adds some ambience. The packaging is also clean and simple, which is another plus in the “makes a great baby gift” column.

How we did our homework…

• I used the machine in Lou’s room almost every night for one month. On one night when we were staying somewhere else and didn’t have it, Lou did notice its absence — he said, “at our house we have the bedtime song!” I’d say that’s evidence that it’s become a crucial part of our routine, and moved us away from the endless “one more book” loop that’s been keeping Lou from prompt bedtimes (and shortening my equally crucial sitting on the couch in sweatpants time).

Footnotes…

• Hatch Rest 2nd Gen, $59.99

• Wi-Fi controlled