Recently one of our community members, Nurse Tina, posted a TikTok video of her baby Jace in his smart crib that went viral, with over 1.4 million views (and counting!). The clip showed how Cradlewise automatically soothed her son to sleep in four minutes using white noise and gentle bouncing. 👏

Although we were overwhelmed by the support, we realized that many people were also curious about Cradlewise and had some misconceptions about our smart crib’s technology and how it works. As parents, baby safety is the utmost priority. You wouldn’t trust your little one with any product before ensuring it’s safe for them. 

Here, we dispel the most common myths that frequently popped up within the comments of the viral video.

My baby is crying for a reason (because they are hungry, need a diaper change, etc.) Does Cradlewise ignore these factors and constantly put them back into a forced sleep? 

Cradlewise is minimalist in its approach and does not rock all night. We don’t believe in sleep at any cost—as a policy, the crib won’t bounce more than 30 minutes.

When parents set up their baby’s profile in the Cradlewise app, they need to input their little one’s age and due date. This info is factored into the smart crib’s predictive soothing mechanism so that Cradlewise adapts to the sleep and wake-up patterns. 

If your baby is hungry or needs to have their diaper changed, no amount of soothing from Cradlewise will be able to stop them from waking up.

Won’t my baby feel disconnected from me if I use Cradlewise?

We understand this concern, which can arise when parents see a smart crib soothing a baby to sleep for the first time.

Cradlewise is augmenting you as a parent; not replacing you. In fact, we highly encourage touch because it has significant wellness benefits for both you and your child.

The lead-up before your child goes to sleep is a wonderful time to connect through feeding, bath time, cuddling, reading and other activities that will help set the tone for rest.

On average, newborns sleep 16 to 17 hours, which reduces down to 12 hours by the time your child turns one. As parents, we want to soak up every single moment but we simply can’t be present all of the time.

Rocking and soothing is a special bonding experience between parents and their babies. How will I bond with my baby if I let Cradlewise soothe her back to sleep?

After a long day, nothing beats the feeling of embracing your little one. Our smart crib isn’t meant to replace those precious (and fleeting) bonding moments. 

What it does is create a soothing environment in which your baby can continue to sleep if she or he is woken up. In turn, this helps parents maximize their time with their little one and ensure they get higher-quality sleep, which is critical for their brain development and growth. 

Nothing can ever replace the touch of a parent. Many of our community members rock and feed their little ones before putting them down for bedtime. 

Trust your instincts—if you feel that your child needs your presence and touch, pick them up and soothe them to sleep.

Does Cradlewise consistently bounce all night long? 

No, it’s a misconception that Cradlewise bounces all night long. Unlike other smart cribs, the smart soothing features are only activated when your baby stirs from their sleep. 

The crib’s gentle bouncing is capped to 30 minutes. Parents can cap the duration of the bounce even lower within the app settings of the crib.

Since babies’ sleep is so fragmented, Cradlewise allows for more of a continuous stretch of high-quality sleep for both babies and parents.

One of our community’s earliest members, Pragnya (37), shares her experience with her daughter Maya (now 14 months). “The major value that we got was like those night wakings. What would happen as a new mom is every time Maya got up, I would get up as well and pat her down. And that is like every few minutes during the limited sleep time that I was getting and that time was interrupted by me just trying to be there for my baby. But once the crib came in, it allowed us to have more of a continuous night of sleep. So that was a relief in those early months and obviously a continuing source since we realized that the crib could do that.”

When my baby has grown out of Cradlewise, will they be unable to fall asleep because they’re reliant on the rocking motion?

Cradlewise only bounces if your baby gets fussy. You have total customization control over the entire experience, including the bounce duration and level. This is different from other products that constantly rock and generate white noise at all times.

Another early member of our family—Pamela Marie Hobby (38) first-time mom of Buster (four months) shares how you can optimize different settings, based on what your baby likes and dislikes. 

“You can play with the auto mode as well because you’re learning what your baby likes and what your baby doesn’t like. In his first stretch, we were using manual mode and knowing that at times, we would be able to turn it off right before bed But now he’s back to auto soothe and we have it at just the right intensity. 

It’s so exciting to have the tools to get that ‘sleep recipe’ right and ensure he’s getting high-quality sleep, especially as he’s still growing.”

Prior to using Cradlewise,  Pragnya wondered whether her daughter Maya (now 14 months) would become too dependent on Cradlewise to sleep. “Is this going to form a habit or dependency for my baby? And what if we are traveling? Would she be able to sleep somewhere else?” 

Pragnya used the crib for the past year and realized that it helps her baby Maya stay asleep for longer stretches. “She has developed her own sense of how to fall asleep, and the crib doesn’t necessarily interfere with that. But it gives her that nice environment in which she can continue to sleep if she’s woken up,” Pragnya shares.

Is there really enough space within Cradlewise for my baby to move around as they grow? 

Yes, our smart crib contains enough space for your little one to comfortably rest as they grow. Unlike other smart baby beds, which are geared only toward the first six months, your child can sleep in Cradlewise up until their second birthday. (Or when they reach 33 pounds, whichever comes first).

Here are the exact dimensions of the crib: Length: 40” Width: 25” Height: 42”.

Wouldn’t using Cradlewise make my baby dependent on me every time for bed? What about when they get older and want to sleep in their own bed as toddlers?

We have a weaning mode. In fact, weaning is built into every feature of the product design.

When the baby is less than six months old, you can keep the crib sensitivity setting at a higher level. This means that even if the baby stirs a little, the crib will bounce to prevent them from waking up. 

As they grow older, you can reduce the sensitivity of your smart crib. Around the nine-month mark, specifically, babies start to toss and turn in their sleep, and you don’t want the crib to bounce at their every movement.

But if you know that a few nights have been rough because you suspect they are going through a sleep regression, then you can choose to increase the sensitivity of the crib to give your baby some extra TLC.

Our approach is minimalist while activating the crib to soothe the baby. When the baby stirs, Cradlewise starts bouncing at a low amplitude. If that works and the baby sleeps soundly, then the bounce automatically stops. If the baby is still stirring, then the crib will ramp up the amplitude. The approach is to just give babies a little nudge to help them fall back asleep.

Since Cradlewise is a furniture item that is part of the nursery, we have many parents whose babies use it for nighttime sleep but nap in a different place during the day. Their little ones are able to easily adapt to various sleep environments.

We hope these Q+As helped you understand Cradlewise and the vision behind it better.