Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In case you're reading this review and still don't know what this thing does - it's a sleep trainer for kids, hereafter referred to as "this clock". This means it helps them develop sleeping routines around going to bed and getting up, and perhaps most importantly, keeping kids in bed overnight. This clock has two indicators, one is the large, backlit face indicating if the bunny is sleeping or not (includes interchangeable face plates - one with day/night, the other is night-only.) The smaller window is a digital clock that is set under an image of a sun or moon and is backlit either yellow or blue, respectively. The clock window also changes to a digital menu display for changing options. The daily routine of using this clock involves setting a wakeup time (can be set for weekdays, weekends, and naptimes) when the clock will change from "sleep time" to "wake time". And for when settling down for sleeping, there is a button on the back edge that starts a user-configurable timer that counts down while the sun image sets and the moon image rises until a chime plays indicating that is officially "sleep time." Additionally, during the slow animation of the sun setting, the backlight changes from yellow to blue. One note about the backlight: The clock display light is almost bright enough to read by. Compounding this is the yellow daytime light is much dimmer than the blue nighttime light. In order to see much of the yellow light, one has to turn up the brightness, resulting in a blue light that is much too bright at night. This clock gives you a myriad of options for personalizing your routines. Menu Options - things you can change about the functionality of the clock: -Length of sleep countdown timer -Alarm sound -Faceplate option -Wake times -setting the clock Physical Switches - buttons on the back: -Menu operations, there is a select, up and down button on the back of the clock face to interact with the menu -GS "Go to Sleep" for starting the countdown timer. Note, the clock will never go to "sleep time" on its own, you must press the GS button every single time for sleeping -Lullabye, you can have the clock play some variety of elevator music to help your child sleep, however the music is crude and we don't find it very soothing -Backlight intensity, 4 levels -Alarm on/off -Weekday/weekend selector switch Other Features This clock features a battery back up that is intended to keep the current time and settings in the event that A/C power is lost - or as a primary means of operating the clock. I believe the manual indicates a 2-3 month run time. However, in my experiences, in the event of a power outage, the clock will reset regardless of whether there is a battery or not whenever the power is reconnected. This means I have to re-set all of my settings/preferences every time the power goes out or if the clock falls off the nightstand and yanks off of the power cords, etc. A minor inconvenience, but nullifies the benefit of including a battery backup In use - I had an issue with my 3yr old constantly waking up in the middle of the night and coming over to my bed and had to find some way of reinforcing the routine of staying in bed through the night. After about 2 weeks of using this clock and reminding him that "when the moon is up, it's time for sleeping in your own bed" I no longer have that issue. So, in short, this clock does the job, but it's not without some opportunity for improvement. Pros: -Most importantly, it helps train kids about appropriate sleeping and waking routines. -Obvious indicators of when it's time to be sleeping and in bed versus time to wake up and bug mommy -Cute designs that are intuitive to understand -Easy-to-read clock display (for actually serving as a clock) -A not horribly unintuitive interface for programming the clock and setting up the options - and there are a lot of options. -A battery backup (but see below in cons) Cons: -The blue light for sleeping is (in my opinion) obnoxiously bright. -Physical switches, while nice, are easy for kids to mess around with and inadvertently change settings. -The battery backup implementation still requires you to set the clock whenever there's a power interruption