Tired parents are desperate to get their kids to sleep. There’s a whole sleep consulting industry designed to help.
“One of the top times that I get emails from tired parents is somewhere between midnight and 2 am,” says Christine Stevens, who owns Sleep Solutions by Christine. Stevens is a certified child and infant sleep consultant, a professional who offers services to families struggling with behavioral childhood sleep problems. She is one of the growing league of such professionals around the globe, a cohort of providers who fill this need for exhausted families.
There are no national or international guidelines on who can be a provider, but a sleep consultant typically receives training through one of several organizations that offers a proprietary sleep curriculum in service of getting parents and children the sleep they need to function and thrive.
The Family Sleep Institute, one of these organizations, calls its curriculum comprehensive and evidence-based, covering such topics as “Safe Sleep Environments Preventing SIDS,” “Twins,” and “Working with Families of Children with Special Needs” in their certification program.
