About Cayla
As a mother of three young children, I understand the challenges that sleep can sometimes present for kids and their parents. I also understand the immense pressure parents often feel to sleep train.
The sleep training industry doesn’t want you to know this, but parents don’t have to choose between cry it out, or wait it out! There is a middle ground, and I am here to help.
While working together, parents will learn to focus on their baby’s cues, and to better trust their instincts. My goal is to help parents find sleep solutions through responsive parenting practices, while building connected relationships. I never utilize extinction or separation-based techniques to get children to sleep.
I dedicate my professional life to helping families strengthen the familial relationship while educating parents on how to get the best sleep possible without resorting to sleep training.
- Certified Baby-Led Sleep and Well-Being Specialist
- Certified Parent Educator
- Certification in Breastfeeding Support and Education from Doula Canada
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Western University
I’m a mom to my 3 kids aged 8, 6, and 4, and have been married to my husband, Jay, for 12 years. You may know me as @OfficialSleepingBeauties on social media.
Have questions about my approach or working together? Reach out anytime at cayla@sleepingbeauties.ca !
Have questions?
Hi, I’m Cayla. I help babies, kids, and adults get the sleep they need without sleep training, pressure, or rigid rules.
Support that meets you where you are, sees the whole picture, and helps you feel confident again.
Hi, I’m Cayla. I help babies, kids, and adults get the sleep they need without sleep training, pressure, or rigid rules.
Support that meets you where you are, sees the whole picture, and helps you feel confident again.
My journey into the world of sleep started with my daughter.
When she was an infant, I got swept into the fear-based messaging that insists sleep training is the only responsible choice. As first time parents who wanted to do right by our child, we pushed aside our instincts and followed every rule, schedule, and checklist we were told to.
Every part of me knew it didn’t feel right. But everyone around us kept telling us to stick with it – that once we pushed through the “hard parts,” it would all pay off.
It didn’t.
If anything, it made my anxiety worse, made my daughter fearful of her crib, and left us confused about what to do next.
Sleep training taught me that sleep had rigid rules; that babies were supposed to sleep in one particular way; and that any struggle meant I was doing something wrong. I was exhausted, disconnected, and terrified of making another mistake.
We parted ways with sleep training, but the damage it had done stuck with me. I knew my daughter needed my support, but I offered it through the lens of sleep training’s rigid rules – from an arm’s length, and at a minimum. Needless to say, that didn’t quite work, and we were stuck in an endless cycle of trying to ‘fix’ her sleep, when nothing truly needed fixing at all.
Months later – after countless nights sleeping on the floor outside my daughter’s bedroom door (while four months pregnant, no less) – everything shifted.
A family member introduced me to the burgeoning world of responsive sleep, and for the first time, I found language and support that matched what my instincts had been trying to tell me all along.
My son, my second-born, taught me that sleep isn’t a behaviour problem – it’s a whole-person experience.
He was sensitive in every way: reflux, allergies, feeding challenges, sensory overwhelm. He was what most people would describe as a ‘difficult’ baby, mostly because there were so many layers to what he was experiencing. He taught me that sleep is shaped by development, biology, temperament, feeding, and the nervous system, but not discipline.
My third child completed the picture.
He was easygoing but still not a textbook sleeper. The difference was me. I finally trusted what I knew and stopped chasing quick fixes for problems that I was told existed. That confidence is what I now help other families build.
And then I noticed something important:
Parents were telling me their kids were finally sleeping, yet they were not. Stress, hormones, nervous system dysregulation, and family history were affecting them just as much.
Supporting adults became a natural extension of supporting whole families, because sleep struggles don’t belong to one age group. It moves through generations.
My Approach / Philosophy
My approach is responsive, realistic, and grounded in science.
I don’t offer one-size-fits-all strategies (no cry-it-out, “gentle” sleep training, or basic CBT-I for adults), quick fixes, or anything that pushes you away from your instincts. Together, we curate unique strategies that account for the whole picture, not just the symptoms.
Support with me is:
- Responsive, not behaviourist
- Root-cause oriented, not surface-level
- Flexible, not rigid
- Developed with you, not handed down to you
I help you understand why sleep feels hard and what we can do together to make it better.
What I Believe About Sleep
The Value of a Specialist Approach
Sleep is never just about sleep. It’s a complex intersection of biology, nervous system health, family dynamics, and the environment. In an industry that is largely unregulated, the depth of your provider’s training matters. My work brings these pieces together through a specialist’s lens, moving beyond standard sleep coaching to look at the weight of everything a person–child or adult–is carrying beneath the surface.
I have a BA in Psychology, and I’ve completed extensive training across pediatric and adult sleep, responsive parenting, feeding support, and the science of behaviour and physiology. I’m certified as a Baby-Led Sleep & Well-Being Specialist, an Attached at the Heart Parent Educator, and an Integrative Adult Sleep Coach. I’m also expanding my scope with ongoing training in lactation support, holistic child & teen sleep, naturopathy, and sleep considerations for individuals with disabilities.
- BA in Psychology, Western University
- Certified Baby-Led Sleep & Well-Being Specialist, Isla Grace Sleep
- Certified Attached at the Heart Parent Educator, Attachment Parenting International
- Certified Integrative Adult Sleep Coach, International Parenting & Health Institute
- In progress: Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach certification, International Parenting & Health Institute
- In progress: Naturopathy Practitioner certification, Scholistico
- In progress: Lactation Specialist training, DNT Network
- Additional specialty education in sleep and disabilities, Isla Grace Sleep
What truly shapes my work, though, is the ability to zoom out: to see the red flags others often miss and help you understand why sleep feels hard in the first place. I look at development, hormones, feeding challenges, sensory needs, medical factors, emotional patterns, and your lived experience as a whole, not in isolation.
I also work closely with allied health practitioners when a child or adult needs additional support. When something falls outside my scope, I help you identify the right professionals and integrate their insights so your plan feels coordinated, holistic, and grounded in real understanding.
My approach isn’t about forcing a rigid method. It’s about offering evidence-informed, responsive guidance that meets you where you are. Whether you’re navigating infant sleep, a highly sensitive toddler, a struggling teen, or your own disrupted nights, my goal is to give you a clear path forward – one that aligns with who you are, not a one-size-fits-all method.
