Cradlewise Smart Bassinet and Crib Review: AI to Help Babies Sleep

Your baby’s bassinet or the crib not only affects their sleep, it also affects yours. I’m a new mom, my little one was born at the end of September, and we’ve been using the Cradlewise smart bassinet for the past month. While it’s not a foolproof way to get your baby to sleep (is there a foolproof crib?), it has helped reduce the need for intervention. Less intervention means more sleep for me and my baby, so I’m a fan of Cradlewise.

Cradlewise has all the gadgets built in: a baby monitor, a sound machine, and even a bouncing motion to soothe Baby. The last two are fully customizable from the Cradlewise app. But it’s not just a gadget full of gadgets—the app has AI inside it that will use the camera and microphone to track and categorize Baby’s sleep, and react when Baby is busy.

Cradlewise has worked to help keep my baby asleep, many times I respond to it before I do. During his last nap, I watched him on the app as he tossed in and out, and was finally lulled to sleep by the bouncing of the bed. At that time, I was able to write this review. I am sold.

The First Baby AI

Cradlewise’s AI is designed to learn your baby’s sleep habits so it can respond accordingly. Considering I’m in the throes of a newborn baby, I’ll happily accept anything that can help with sleep at this stage. The crib monitor, built into the hanging arc of the crib, uses 3D image mapping technology to detect the baby’s sleep state in silence, activity, or crying. AI interprets and categorizes this information to respond by hitting Baby, kicking the sound machine, or both. The more the built-in AI can understand and predict your baby’s sleep habits, the more likely it is to prevent your baby’s fussing and tossing and turning.

I was hesitant to rely on AI to get my baby to sleep, but Cradlewise is designed to respond the way a parent would when a baby is fussing. It will start softening in a slow bouncing motion and turn on the sound machine. If your baby still resists falling asleep, he will respond by increasing the bounce movement and the volume of the sound. When the bed realizes that your child is resting and sleeping, all functions are shut down. If the child cannot be comforted by these actions, it will send an alert through the app.

With the app, you have full control over everything from the intensity of the beat movement to the volume of the sound machine. And it’s not always, so your baby is less likely to become sleep dependent. I’ve been using the high sensitivity setting so the bassinet responds almost instantly to my baby’s movements or sounds. When he stirs, I wait to see if Cradlewise can soothe him back to sleep. About half the time, it will happen. On the other hand, sometimes the bassinet will increase the bouncing motion very quickly, from gentle bouncing to level three or four (level four is the highest intensity), which usually feels too aggressive and not productive for my baby to sleep. When this happens, I reduce the power myself. Hopefully this is a pattern that AI will eventually pick up and fix, but so far, it hasn’t.