Ask any new parent their biggest challenge and they’ll tell you through heavy eyelids and a few yawns that it’s sleep deprivation.
Without a doubt sleep becomes a precious luxury that new parents wish they had appreciated far more while a full, uninterrupted night’s sleep was still on the cards.
But a British brother and sister are on track to help exhausted parents stop their babies crying and improve everyone’s sleep.
They have developed an app and clever gadget called Quiet Night. Children pull the gaget to make music play and keep them entertained. The app component of the toy learns the type of music that the baby likes, which in turn stops them from crying.
And the design has the added bonus of helping babies’ brain development says app developers Ben and Hermoine Way.
“By learning what a baby likes and giving them control, they get more engaged, learn faster,” Ben told the Daily Mail.
But better yet, Ben explained that for babies who used his app, their crying stops, “It reduces crying by 50% – they interact with this instead of calling parents,” he said.
With a specially designed ‘smart’ handle, babies as young as four months can pull the handle to make music play when they are in their cot.
How Quiet Night works:
Child pulls on the handle.
A song from the gadget’s library of child-friendly melodies is played.
The longer the child pulls the handle the more they like that piece of music.
The device learns which music the child likes and automatically changes the music as the baby’s brain grows.
Because the child is engaged and learning, they cry less, allowing parents more sleep
The concept was introduced by Bristol University professor, Tom Troscianko, who spent two decades researching how music could be used to help children develop their brain faster.
“What Tom found was the longer baby pulled for, the more they liked the music,” said Ben.
Professor Troscianko has since passed away but the British siblings have continued with the app’s development.
The gadget was listed on crowdfounding platform, Indiegogo and has already reached $30,000 of its $100,000 target and is expected to go on sale in October this year.
The device comes preloaded with 125 songs, but parents can download more.
For parents still needing some convincing of just how effective this smart gadget may be when it comes to getting those extra zzz’s each night, Ben says sleep is in sight.
“The late and great professor Tom found that on average a night with Quiet Night will reduce typical crying by 30% in most babies and up to 50%. In some, he calculated that on average that was an extra hour of sleep for the parents.”
