Auckland, New Zealand – Parents regularly struggle to get their young children to go to bed, for the simple reason that children can’t be swayed from their sole goal of not going to bed! Intuitively and infinitely better negotiators than parents, children use lengthy arguments, tantrums and tears to convince their parents that it is definitely not time for a snooze. And too often, they win the fight just because we as parents get worn down. But no longer! Siesta Testa can help children understand that, just like their toys, they too have batteries that need to be charged in order to work. This handy app shows them how!

“Kids will accept the results far sooner from a device than from their parent, who is clearly up to something, simply wrong, or the standard favourite, just being mean!”

Children believe that they know best and can’t understand why no one listens when then say “I’m not ready for bed.” And so, Siesta Testa was born – to convince children that the only way to charge their batteries is to sleep. Without their batteries being charged, children will not have enough energy to play later and will miss out on all the fun!

Good, old fashioned trickery at its best. Realistically, no app can detect the energy levels of a child. Siesta Testa is simply intended as leverage to get your child to go to sleep. No guilt for pulling the blanket over their eyes, so to speak!

How Siesta Testa Works – Like most parenting tricks, Siesta Testa requires some background discussion:
* Your child needs to believe that they have batteries in their body. Have fun with your child deciding where in your body your batteries are – in your toes, eye, knees?
* Explain to your child that, like toys and phones, they too need to charge their batteries to work properly.
* For toys and phones, this means plugging it into the wall to get charged, but for people, we need to sleep to renew our energy.

Once the seed is planted, using Siesta Testa is simple. After setting up a profile for each child with their usual sleep routines, the child tests their battery levels by holding their finger on the screen. Magic happens as a green sonar flash swipes over the screen, the device (if available) vibrates, techno sounding sonar sounds play, pulse blasts fire, radial locators expand outwards and binary data displays during testing. This space-age looking test not only gives the impression to the child that there is some highly complex scientific algorithm being run along with state-of-the-art biometric analysis but it is also fun and exciting for the child and as part of a routine to trigger for them to go to bed. After testing is completed, an image of the child is displayed confirming to the child that the result is theirs. An animated battery appears on the screen, showing a representation of the child’s “remaining energy.” The Premium version also allows the user to set the result they want shown, regardless of the recorded sleep routines. This is really useful after those long days of playing, sugar-filled parties and over-stimulated children! It’s also a useful aid for children suffering jet-lag to try and get them back into their routine.

Health Benefits:
It’s often believed that kids, as with adults, can catch up on their sleep at a later ‘more convenient’ time. This is not true, and sleep deprivation can result in many health concerns such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, attention deficit disorder amongst others. Kids just can’t understand how important it is to sleep, what with the fun of TV, iPads and toys just a few doors away!

Tips:
The Siesta Testa was born out of necessity – the developer husband and wife team could simply not get their three-year old to sleep. So, some tips to ensure best results:
* For the first few days, introduce the child to Siesta Testa by letting them test their energy levels several times a day. They will see their own different ‘battery levels’ throughout the day, and be convinced that it’s the real deal.
* Explain to your child about their batteries – how they get run down, what it means for their energy levels, and how they can easily recharge them by having a snooze. Let your child have fun deciding where their batteries are in their bodies.
* Set up a profile for yourself too – this way your child can see that they have to go to bed before you as they have the least energy.

Calculating The Displayed Energy Levels:
* The percentage of energy remaining is calculated as the time between the child’s normal scheduled sleep and waking times, defined by you during the initial profile setup. For example, if a child’s routine is to go to sleep at 8pm and wake at 8am, then at 8am they will show 100% energy, at 2pm they will show 50% and just before bed at 8pm, they will see only 1% battery power left.

If your child is testing themselves during a time when they should be asleep, then the result is determined in one of two ways:
* During the first half of the period in which they should be asleep, the energy level shown is 1%. This is for children who fight the urge to sleep and may demand to be retested. You won’t want 100% showing if they test an hour after they should have gone to bed.
* During the second half of the supposed-to-be-asleep period, the result is altered to show a reduced energy level until their next sleep is completed.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 6.0 or later
* Universal Application
* 30.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Siesta Testa 1.0.2 is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Lifestyle category. A limited number of Promotional Codes are available to the media. Journalists interested in receiving one for a complementary Siesta Testa should contact us. In addition, high resolution images of screenshots and icons, interviews and any other information/media is available by request.

Siesta Testa 1.0.2
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Margie and Andy Sparrow are independent developers located in Auckland, New Zealand who started coding for iOS in 2013. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2014 Margie and Andy Sparrow. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.