You’re probably here because you heard about Hatch and are wondering if it’s worth putting on your registry or splurging on it because you’re dealing with a baby who won’t sleep, so before getting into the details, let’s quickly highlight the basics. Hatch Rest+ is a sound machine, night light, time-to-rise, clock and wireless two-way baby audio monitor that is – yes – a game changer, especially in the first year of a baby’s life. You can control it manually or via your phone with their app.
Unlike other popular sound machines that only have 1-3 options, Hatch has 11 sounds to choose from (Crickets, Rain, White Noise, Birds, Wind, Ocean, Water Stream, Dryer and three lullabies). To get the most out of white noise, I go by what Dr. Harvey Karp says and I opt for continuous, monotonous and low-pitch sounds, like ones that mimic a hair drier, fan or rain sounds, not inconsistent ones like waves or birds chirping.
The customizable nightlight light library that Rest+ has features 10 preset ones and an in-app color wheel (I opted for red light for middle-of-night wake-ups as research shows it’s best for encouraging sleep). You can also use Rest+ to create sleep programs (basically one-touch programs of sound and light for bedtime, nap time and wake up) and there’s a time-to-rise option that uses colors to help older kids learn when it’s time to wake up.
Till now all these features are things you’ll also get with Hatch Rest (which is $60 vs Rest+ which is $90). So why do I prefer Rest+ over Rest? Three main reasons: you can use Rest+ on-the-go since you don’t need a direct power source, it has a clock (very helpful for middle-of-night wakings and bedtime routine), which can be adjusted in terms of brightness or totally turned off and Rest+ uses WiFi (vs bluetooth) so you can control it from a distance.
Other extra features that are included, but I can’t personally attest to are that is works as an audio monitor (which I haven’t used because I have the Nanit camera for that) and voice control (with Amazon Alexa – which I haven’t used either since I’m not an Alexa user).
Hatch has been a key reason my son has slept so well (I put the white noise at 25% and it’s a few feet from his crib) and I can’t recommend their Rest+ device enough (or Rest if those additional features don’t apply to you).
