The Best Sleep Training Clocks To Get Your Kids In Bed

The Best Sleep Training Clocks To Get Your Kids In Bed (And Keep Them There)

Whether it’s a challenge to get your toddler to go to sleep or to stay in bed when they pop awake at 5AM, sleep training alarm clocks offer a very visual and very easy to understand tool to help you teach your little one the basics of good sleep practices.

It’s a tough job convincing your toddlers that they don’t have to wake you up bright and early every morning. The problem here is that typically toddlers are early risers, and they can’t read a clock properly to realize it’s an entirely unreasonable time to be awake. They’re awake so they want you to be awake too.

A sleep training clock works on a traffic light system. It uses warm colors as visual cues to tell your child when to go to bed and when is ok to get up. Many sleep training clocks come with simple reward systems and colorful graphics that entertain your kid, while also reinforcing the message of when to rise and when to snooze.

Sure, you can’t guarantee they’ll listen to those cues but it’s a good way of encouraging them into better habits.

There are plenty of sleep training alarm clocks on the market, so we’ve narrowed things down to 7 with each providing a different useful feature for your home. Hopefully, in no time, your whole household will be resting a little easier in the mornings.

The Simplest Sleep Training Alarm Clock: Sleep Buddy ($40)

Simplicity is key sometimes and the Sleep Buddy Sleep System offers that in abundance. It doesn’t require a smartphone for any of its features and it has a long lasting battery that means you can take it away with you for weekend trips away.

The circular device has a programmable blue or amber sleep light that turns on for when your child should be asleep or off for when they can get up. It’s subtle yet soothing, so it blends in well to their bedroom. Primarily, the point is to program specific times to sleep during but there’s also the option of a Nap Now and Night Now features that can be activated at any given moment by you. It’s suitably straightforward so the only challenge you’re faced with is getting your toddler to listen to it.

On top of all that, you don’t just get the light but an actual sleep training system with sticker charts and guidance to help you in your keep-the-kids-in-bed quest.

Best For App Connectivity: Hatch Baby ($72)

For those users keen to have all their gadgets hook up to their smartphone, the Hatch Baby is the ideal sleep training alarm clock. The classy looking device is part nightlight, sound machine, and alarm clock.

You can program it to turn on automatically at any given time, with you able to tweak the settings remotely via your smartphone. You won’t have to worry about sneaking past a sleeping baby or toddler if you simply want to extend the time on it. It’s possible to customize the color as well as brightness, so your kid can pick out their favorite color to represent when they should rise.

The nightlight and sound machine are a great way of soothing anxious babies and toddlers, so you’ve got a trio of great ways to entice your child into good sleeping habits. It’s also a perfectly dim and soothing light source to use for late night nursing sessions. It’s the sort of tool that will serve you for years: from birth to well into the still-needs-a-night-light years.

Best For Communication: REMI ($100)

There are going to be times on your journey to train your child to sleep that you’ll want to talk to them to soothe them back to sleep. That’s where REMI shines. It has a secure two-way communication baby monitor that means you can talk to your child from anywhere via the smartphone app. In turn, you can also receive notifications any time there’s a noise in your kid’s room, giving you a quick heads up on any potential issues arising. Such notifications also double as a form of sleep tracker so you can work on optimizing your child’s sleep.

Besides that, REMI works well as a typical sleep trainer. Kids can quickly learn that a happy, smiling REMI means it’s time to get up, while an asleep REMI means that they should be snoozing too. It’s suitably cute stuff.

Throw in a Night Light feature, as well as the ability to use REMI as a Bluetooth speaker, and you have a real versatile sleep trainer, baby monitor, and more all rolled into one.

The Cutest: Mirari OK to Wake! ($25)

Mirari OK to Wake! is a super cute sleep training alarm clock. With a beaming smile, the device glows green when it’s “good to go”, i.e. your child is fine to get out of bed and wake you. The bedside clock also works as a ‘proper’ clock for older kids who are learning to read time. There’s also a useful nap timer button, fun animations, and interchangeable faceplates.

It’s super simple to use so you should have no problem teaching your kids that they don’t come and bother you until the cute light goes green. It takes moments to set up too.

The clock works via either 4 AA batteries (not included) or a USB charger. So just bear that in mind when budgeting accordingly.

Most Stylish: Mella ($50)

Mella is a super stylish sleep training alarm clock. If your household is typically very modern looking and you want your kid’s room to look similar, this is the device for you. A circular alarm clock with a cute smiley face at the center, Mella uses colors and facial expressions to communicate to your kids what they should be doing. Half an hour before it’s time to wake up, it glows yellow with green indicating it’s time to wake up.

It’s a cute and effective way of doing things, with Mella offering a little more alongside it. There are three sleep sound options, along with five night light colors to soothe your child to sleep. An alarm and silent countdown is also available for older kids.

Cute, well designed, and simple for your kids to learn. What more could you want?

Best “Toy”: It’s About Time Stoplight Sleep Enhancing Alarm Clock ($50)

Kids love toys. Buy them a sleep training alarm clock that looks like one of their favorite toys and it stands to reason that they’re going to listen to it, right? Buy the It’s About Time Stoplight Sleep Enhancing Alarm Clock and your kids will be told when to rise by Elmo and Cookie Monster. And how could anyone ignore their cute faces?!

The clock is designed like a stoplight. The red light means its time to sleep (and stays on all night as a very dim night light). The green light means its time to wake up. It also works as a digital clock with an optional beeping alarm function. The yellow light comes in to play as an option night light.

It’s a little lightweight on features, but the sheer delight of having Sesame Street characters right there is sure to entice many kids into paying attention and the red means stop/green means go is pretty straightforward.

Best For Teaching Time: Teach Me Time! Talking Bedside Alarm Clock ($30)

A child that knows what time it is can at least be told “do you know what time it is?!” when they burst into your bedroom at 4AM eager to get started with the day. The Teach Me Time! Talking Bedside Alarm Clock is aimed at toddlers as well as slightly older children. Its night light is a soft yellow in the evening before turning green in the morning so kids know when it’s ok to get up. it also doubles as a dual-color nightlight.

Once your child gets a little older, you can use the device for its interactive talking time teaching game that has five different skill levels and teaches kids how to understand both analog and digital clock faces. It also works as a fully functional alarm clock.

Much like the Mirari OK to Wake!, it requires either 2 AA batteries, or a USB charger to work.

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