Our youngest son is, at the time of writing, 2 months old. We didn’t use a Sleepyhead with our first. He just slept in the Moses basket both during the day and night (not that he slept much!). But having seen a couple of our friends use the Sleepyhead and hearing them rave about it, we started looking into one just before we had the baby.
In the end, we decided we’d try it. This is our review of the Sleepyhead Deluxe Pod (first size).
Please note update: At the time of writing on 16th May 2020, the Sleepyhead (plain white) is coming in at £249 on Amazon and is out of stock with most other retailers. You can still get other colours for £140 but the most popular option is up astronomically, likely down to demand and stock. For anyone who wants to save come cash, we also rounded up some of the best alternatives to the Sleepyhead here.
The Short Version – Our Rating
If you don’t have too much time on your hands and you just want the quick version, we rate the Sleepyhead a 4/5.
[pipdig_stars rating=”5″]
The Good:
- Great quality product and materials
- Our newborn son was very, very comfortable napping in it during the day
- Washable (albeit a bit fiddly)
- Really portable. You can easily move a sleeping baby from one place to another and similarly you can take the Sleepyhead with you when you travel
The Bad
- It is expensive compared to other sleeping pods
- It is NOT Lullaby Trust approved for unsupervised sleeping. In other words, if you’re sleeping too and therefore not supervising baby, baby shouldn’t be asleep in the Sleepyhead. This means it isn’t suitable for overnight sleeping
- Although it says suitable up to 8 months, our son (at 2 months) is already looking pretty close to outgrowing it! He still fits it, but it’s a cosy fit now and he seems to like a bit more space. Other babies, assume, would be different
A bit more of a detailed write up follows and we’ve answered some of the questions we ourselves had before buying it.
Sleepyhead Deluxe Pod Price
We paid £120 for ours from Amazon though prices vary.
Can Baby Sleep in the Sleepyhead Overnight?
So this is a really important question. Of course it is ultimately up to you where your baby sleeps overnight. BUT – the Sleepyhead is not recommended for unsupervised sleeping.
The Lullaby Trust does not comment on individual products. But its advice is clear – a firm, flat mattress is the best place for baby to sleep overnight to reduce the risk of SIDS (based on research). The Lullaby Trust does not recommend padded sleep surfaces or cushions.
For this reason, we decided that our son would not sleep in the Sleepyhead overnight, but instead to use it for day time sleeping only. So we put our son down to nap in this.
Does it help baby to sleep better?
I’ll caveat this with a HUGE “every baby is different.” We’ve found that out! Our first son was a terrible sleeper, whereas our youngest is proving a better sleeper. That’s not anything to do with the Sleepyhead, though! Overnight he’s in a Moses basket and that’s where he sleeps best.
That said, for his first few weeks, he took all his naps in the Sleepyhead. It is a cosy environment for a newborn baby who likes to be a little more enclosed. We tended to lay a muslin square underneath him just in case he was sick. And if it was cold, we’d put a blanket over him too.
He did sleep well during the day in the Sleepyhead, for the short naps he took. But at the same time he was sleeping well in his Moses basket at night too, so it’s impossible to say for sure how much of an influence the Sleepyhead was having.
Washing the Sleepyhead
The Sleepyhead cover is completely washable. Handy! We found it a little bit fidgety to get the cover back on, but we managed it and the Sleepyhead looked as good as new again after a wash.
Does the Sleepyhead fit in a Moses Basket?
So, we didn’t buy the Sleepyhead to actually go into a Moses basket. But if you were considering it for that reason, the answer is no. It couldn’t fit in. You could potentially squeeze it in, but I imagine this would be dangerous.
Don’t buy the Sleepyhead as something to lay baby down in within a Moses basket.
Does the Sleepyhead fit into a Cot?
Yes! And actually, I know a lot of people who use the Sleepyhead within a cot before moving baby into a cot fully.
This is something I would consider for daytime naps – putting him into the Sleepyhead and then into his cot to get used to the cot. But just because of the Lullaby Trust recommendations, I personally can’t imagine I will be laying him in his cot overnight in the Sleepyhead.
How long will baby fit in a Sleepyhead?
It says it is suitable up to 8 months. Realistically, I don’t think we will get that long out of it. Our little one is 2 months and already looks a little cramped in there. He’s 55cm long and 10lbs 13oz. So for a 2 month old baby, a very normal size. Length isn’t really a problem at all. There are clips that undo at the bottom to open the bottom up, as shown here:
But as our has has grown and has started enjoying his space a little more and not necessarily enjoying being too enclosed, he hasn’t napped as well in it.
Of course, every baby is different. Some probably continue to enjoy the enclosed feeling for months!
Sleepyhead also has a Grand Deluxe Pod suitable from 8 – 36 months:
We probably won’t buy the Grand as I think we’ll have probably stopped using ours altogether in a couple of months.
Does the Sleepyhead Come with a Cover?
It does come with one cover and we didn’t bother buying any others. It’s washable so we would just wash the cover when needed overnight while baby was sleeping in his Moses Basket.
Would I buy the Sleepyhead again?
In a nutshell, yes. The materials are great quality and the fact it is so portable is great. In the early days, we took it with us when visiting people during the day etc to be sure our son had somewhere consistent to sleep even when we were at other people’s houses.
For the money, it’s certainly one of the more expensive sleeping pods on the market. But it’s hard to put a price on good daytime napping in those early days and even if we only get 3 or 4 months out of it, we’ll consider it worthwhile.
You can get the Sleepyhead Deluxe Pod standard size for £124 on Amazon at the time of writing. And here’s a list of alternative baby sleep pods if you’re still shopping around.
