What is the SleeperHero?
It starts with a storybook. A story about a boy, named Luke, that struggles with staying in his bed at night. That is until he is introduced to a doll. Not any doll, though. A super special doll — a SleeperHero. SleeperHero is a buddy that is there for him at night when he gets scared. Better yet, this doll has a special light on its chest that shines bright in the dark, wards off his imaginary bad guys AND teaches him when it is an okay time to get out of bed in the morning. The light changes from RED to GREEN. RED means “stay in bed”. GREEN means “rise and shine”. With the help of his SleeperHero, Luke is able to stay in bed at night. And when he learns to sleep better, everyone in the house sleeps better. –SleeperHero Website
When we received the Sleeper Hero doll and story book, the packaging stood out. The box is very special-looking, and when I presented it to my four-year-old son, he was in awe. We opened it, and I was immediately impressed by the doll. It’s got a classic look, I love the texture, and it seems very well-made. It is soft and nice to snuggle with. We read the book, and I laughed out loud. It’s adorable – both the writing and the illustrations.
My son was distracted so much by the doll (good sign!) that I had to keep pulling his attention back to the book. Very cool that at the end of the book, the child is asked to name his own special doll. It got him invested in this “toy” and this whole new project of keeping him in his bed.
We set the timer, which is nicely hidden, but easy to access. Setting it isn’t overly difficult to do, but we did it wrong the first night. My husband also was hoping we could set the timer for naps and nights, so one criticism we have is that you can only choose one time frame to turn the light from red to green.
While laying with my son that first night, I noticed the light on the front of the doll is pretty sensitive. He was playing with it a lot, which again was great – he loves him! But once he was settling down to go to sleep, he still bumped it on a few times. I like that the light can be turned off by tapping it again, and you don’t have to wait for it to time itself off.
To write this review I asked him what he thought, “Good and perfect. I just love him.” Ultimately, I love the look of the doll and the story. The concept is great, and I hope it works to keep our son is his bed long term. It took him a while to get a hang of the new routine, but he absolutely got the concept and would tell us, “It’s red, I’m supposed to be in my bed.” The past two nights, it’s been working like a charm. He came into our room and proudly showed us the doll was green, “Which means I can get up!” I hope this continues!
The SleeperHero doll and story book can be found as a bundle for $49.99 on Amazon, or separately on their website.
Disclaimer: we received this product free for review purposes. All opinions are the contributor’s alone.
Jennifer Moss (she/her) is the founder of BabyNames.com, author of The Baby Names Workbook, and Producer of The Baby Names Podcast. Jennifer is widely regarded as the leading expert on popular baby name trends and the naming process, serving as the authoritative source on the subject for national and international media.
Jennifer entered the tech arena in the 80s as a software developer and database architect, and became a pioneer in the Internet industry. In addition to operating BabyNames.com, Jennifer owns a web development agency in central California.
