The very minute Noah came into this world screaming his lungs out and letting us know he had indeed arrived, we were blessed with not only the cutest and cheekiest little bubba, but also a terrible sleeper at that
The funny thing with sleep deprivation (which any mother + father can tell you) is that you honestly get to the point where a broken 3 hours sleep (sometimes less!) a night becomes the norm! Noah has always been not too bad at his day sleeps but the real killer for me has been his night sleeping. And with a husband that works away, majority of the nights are left up to me. We have tried a lot of things to help Noah sleep better. Swaddling, trying different clothing, offering more food, white noise, rocking to sleep, playing music, reading a book, rocking his bassinet etc and we weren’t having any success. I had seen/heard things over social media about the Glow Dreaming product for quite a while and had always put it in the back of my mind as honestly I just assumed it was something that was really expensive and I didn’t want to bargain on spending my money on something that may not even work. The reviews also seemed to be 50/50. Some say they swear by this product, while others say it has done absolutely nothing to help with their child’s sleep. But I was honestly getting to the point where I thought “I don’t want to keep going on like this”. I felt like I was not myself and I felt like my relationship with Noah was suffering as I was always deeply frustrated with him because he was the one causing my sleep issues. So, I made the leap and brought the Glow Dreaming machine!
At $130 and with a perhaps 50/50 success rate, I can understand why people are hesitant to buy this product, however if it means I may be able to finally get some well earned sleep then I’m willing to take a shot at anything.
So the Glow dreaming machine kit comes packaged in a lovely blue box and for your $130 you receive –
– The Glow dreaming sleep aid machine which combines red and green light therapy, aromatherapy, sound therapy and a humidifier all in one
– 1x organic essential oil
– Decorative patterned sleeve for your Glow dreaming sleep aid. These come in different patterns and we chose the fox pattern for Noah
– An adapter so the product can be plugged into the wall/ and or if you take this away on trips with you
There are also 4 button settings on the sleep aid machine which correspond to the light, on/off, sound and mist setting. They are very easy to navigate. You must also position the product by your child’s bed at eye level. At the moment we have a chair by Noah’s bassinet so he is able to keep a good eye on the machine.
Also on their website, Glow dreaming do say that it can take up to 6 nights before you notice a difference in your child’s sleep pattern and that they may also go through a sleep regression for the first few days which apparently is completely normal. If you also reach day 6 and haven’t found any change in your child’s sleeping pattern then they do stress that you are to contact them where they will offer support and some guidance on how to tweak the machine for a (hopefully) better result.
I have detailed below the first 6 nights of trying out the Glow dreaming machine. They also advise you turn on the machine approx 15 minutes before bedtime using the brightest red setting, and once your child is down to sleep you turn down the aid to the dullest red setting. You can use each setting on its own or all together. We used the red light, humidifier and sound therapy function each night to try and get maximum use out of it
Day 1
We kept Noah’s bedtime routine the same. For us it has always been quiet playtime, bath, massage with oil or moisturizer, pjs, sleeping bag on and taken into our room to be fed at roughly 630/7pm. I had read somewhere that it helps to feed your child in the place where you intend them to go to sleep. Obviously this may not work for everyone but for the moment while Noah sleeps in his bassinet in our room we like to feed him this way as its dark and quiet, and makes for an easy transfer into his bassinet.
-Fed + Asleep at 730pm
-Dream fed at 1030pm ( we were unsure whether to drop this as we had been dream feeding him for quite a while so continued as normal)
-Woke at 2pm and was fed by 230pm. Cried after his feed which he never does and was extremely fussy and irritable and wouldn’t go to sleep no matter what we tried
-Eventually fell asleep at 530pm and slept for approx 2 1/2 hours. We thought maybe he could have also be cold as to why he didn’t go back to sleep, so we went out and bought a new thicker sleeping bag that day. And perhaps the introduction of this new machine also probably had confused him
Day 2
-Pushed his bedtime forward to 630pm as he had been grumpy and cranky all day. Dream feed was dropped as we wanted to see if he was going to start sleeping through longer without needing it
-Woke 940pm crying. Irritable and wouldn’t go back to sleep easily
-Woke 1130pm and fed. Straight to sleep
-Woke 130am fussing and hard to get to sleep. Rocked and patted and dummy in and fell asleep approx 145/2am.
-Woke 4am and fed and would not go back to sleep
Day 3
-Bedtime routine and in bed alseep by 630pm
-Woke at 930, took a little while to soothe as he was getting cranky but evenutally settled from being rocked and patted and asleep at 10pm
-Woke at 1137, nappy changed and fed and asleep by 1215am
-Woke at 430am and fed and was wide awake
Day 4
-Bedtime routine and in bed by 630pm
-Woke brielfy at 1030pm, pacifier was put in and settled instantly
-Brad woke Noah at 1am to feed him. He wasnt sure if he was meant to be sleeping that long without feeding but I assured him it was ok and that the aim of the machine was to get them to sleep longer through the night without having to get up to feed. Fed easily and alseep by 130pm
-Woke at 4am, did a poo and didn’t go back to sleep after that
Day 5
-Pushed bedtime later to 645/7pm as we thought it may help him to sleep a little longer than always waking at 4am every morning. Struggled to give him his full feed at bedtime which never happens so he didn’t finish his food as he was far too tired
-Woke at 915pm and was settled with his pacifier
-Woke at 1015pm and settled with pacifier
-Woke at 11pm, ate and asleep by 1130pm
-Woke at 230am, nappy changed and asleep
-Woke at 4am, nappy changed, fed and stayed awake after that as I took Brad to the airport at 430am. Did fall asleep in the car however on the way back home
Day 6
– Bedtime at 630pm as had woken up too early from his afternoon nap. Was fussy while having his bottle but finished the whole thing and asleep by 7pm.
-Briefly woke up at 10pm where dummy was put in, given a cuddle and he went back to sleep
-Woke at 1230am and fed, nappy changed and asleep by 1am
-Woke at 4am unsettled and was rocked to sleep. Woke approx 20 minutes later where nappy was changed and now very awake. Was considering letting him stay awake (as he usually will not go back to sleep at this time) but he was starting to show tired signs so I persisted by rocking, patting and standing by his bassinet and finally he was asleep by 5. I turned off the sound therapy on the glow machine at this point and just let the red light run
-Woke at 630am and fed and awake for the day
VERDICT
As you can see we are yet to have a real full night where he does not wake up at all. Day 4 and day 6 were probably the best days, however I would still really like to keep trying the machine to see if we can achieve the much awaited full nights sleep. Having to get up to tend to him only briefly and for him to go straight back to sleep can be quite exhausting but I have to admit its been a little easier to settle him during the night when he does wake. Whether this is the glow dreaming or just by pure coincidence who knows but I haven’t given up hope yet. As we are now past day 6 and with no real obvious positive change, I have contacted Glow dreaming where I’ve been given some instructions on what to try for the next few nights. And honestly, I was emailed straight away and have had a really positive experience so far with the customer help team.
In terms of the machine I really like how it has multiple purposes all in one. If you were to buy a humidifier and a sound machine separately, it may cost you almost the same price as buying the glow dreaming just on its own. And in terms of if you need to travel with this product, you are only having to take one item and not having to pack multiple products which I like as well. I would personally keep the box the sleep aid came in as well for easy travel and for peace of mind so its not rolling around in your suitcase/bag. It’s also recommended that if using the sound therapy function that for children under 3 you use the highest setting. I do find this quite loud to have on and for the moment while Noah is still in our room it can be a little hard/distracting to get to sleep. You of course don’t have to use this function, but in terms of annoyance I would say this is probably the least of the functions I like about the machine. The red light is really not a huge bother either.
I also really like the smell of the essential oil. I know some people have said they do find it quite overpowering but I don’t feel it is and for Noah’s age (3months) it is recommended you only use 1-2 drops so I don’t find the smell hangs around all that much as your aren’t using a lot of it.
For any parents out there considering trying this product, as long as you are not concerned too much about the cost then I would honestly give it a go. I have high hopes that we are on the right track as we not only want this product to benefit Noah, but to also bring us back our much missed sleep routine! We are most definitely going to continue using the machine and will be keeping our fingers crossed for that full nights sleep! Stay tuned!
*Blog is in no way sponsored by GLOW DREAMING. I purchased this myself. All recommendations are of my own*
Any updates on how you found this over time ?
Author
Hi Amy!
I kept up with using it for a few more weeks after this blog post was written, however didn’t find a huge difference in my sons sleep to be honest so we stopped using it. I’m not sure if it truly was a help at all to be honest as his sleep did eventually get a lot better the older he got, but at the time I was willing to try anything to get some sleep lol! Wishing you the best on your Glow Dreaming journey! xx
Thank you for replying. I’ve used it for a few months and there’s also not much difference for me. What would you say is the biggest thing that helped your son’s sleep?
Author
Hi! To be honest I think as time went on we were a lot more in tune with his cues and tried our best to fix these things as best we could ie cold at night, hungry, over tired etc (as first time parents we probably missed a lot of these factors as we just didn’t know at the time what to look out for) which I think contributed to his sleep not being the best. At around 8 months his sleep started to get better as I think our confidence grew and we were more in tune with each other. I hope you’ve been able to get some much needed rest and all the best 🙂 xx