About LumiStory

What it does

LumiStory is a library of short bedtime stories, narrated aloud in two languages at once — a native language your child already understands, and a second language they're learning. Each story is real narration (not robotic text-to-speech), synced word-for-word to a scrolling transcript, so listening and reading reinforce each other.

The idea is to fold a few minutes of language exposure into a routine families already have — the last story before lights-out — rather than adding a separate "lesson" to the day.

How to use it

Pick a story from the Library, choose your two languages, and press play. A few things to know:

• Native + translation: turn the second language on or off per listen, and set how much of it plays (a full translation, or just a light gloss of new words) from the story's language picker.
• Follow along: the transcript highlights and auto-scrolls with the narration; tap any line to jump straight to it.
• Adjustable pace: slow down the language being learned and keep the native language at normal speed (or vice versa) with the independent speed controls in the player.
• Pick up where you left off: LumiStory remembers your position in every story, and tracks a nightly streak on your account page.

Why bedtime works well for learning a language

The routine isn't just for convenience — nighttime happens to be a genuinely good time to take in new words. Sleep researchers studying memory consolidation (notably work out of the University of Tübingen on sleep and learning) have found that material encountered shortly before sleep is retained better than the same material learned earlier in the day. During sleep, especially slow-wave and REM stages, the brain replays and strengthens recently formed memories with little interference from new, competing information — unlike daytime learning, which keeps getting overwritten by everything that happens afterward.

For vocabulary specifically, several sleep-and-memory studies report that words heard right before bed show stronger next-day recall than words heard after waking. That lines up with what a lot of parents notice anecdotally: a phrase repeated at bedtime tends to stick. LumiStory leans into that by design — it's meant to be the last thing your child hears, not squeezed in alongside homework or screen time earlier in the day.

This is a general summary of sleep-dependent memory consolidation research, not medical or clinical advice — individual results vary, and good sleep habits matter more than any single app.

Refund policy

Subscriptions and purchases are processed by Paddle.com, our payment provider and merchant of record.

• First-time subscribers: if LumiStory isn't a fit, email us within 14 days of your first charge and we'll issue a full refund, no questions asked.
• Renewals: monthly and yearly subscriptions renew automatically. You can cancel anytime from your account page and you'll keep access until the end of the period you already paid for — we don't refund partial periods, but cancelling stops all future charges.
• Lifetime plan: covered by the same 14-day guarantee as a first-time purchase. After that window, the one-time payment is non-refundable.
• Billing errors: duplicate charges or clear technical mistakes are refunded in full whenever you spot them, no time limit.

To request a refund or cancel, email lumistorysupport@gmail.com — include the email your account uses so we can find your order quickly.

Contact

Questions, feedback, or a story request? Email lumistorysupport@gmail.com.