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Returning sleep to new parents

SleepWellBaby

The same level of defence, aimed at the life stage that reliably destroys sleep for twelve months: new parents.

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Parents: get SleepWellBaby at sleepwellbaby.io

SleepWellBaby’s home screen: the afternoon zone’s feed, play and sleep plan, with a sleep tip for the baby’s age.
Health & Wellbeing solution

The problem

New parents come to work on broken sleep

A new baby is the most predictable cause of acute sleep loss in any workforce, and one of the least discussed. It rarely shows up as a reported fatigue problem at work.

SleepWellBaby, built with Tresillian, shortens the period of acute sleep loss by helping parents understand and settle their baby, and identifies parents who may benefit from clinical evaluation for postnatal depression along the way.

See how SleepWellBaby works Watch the video · 1:45

The size of the problem

National figures for Australia, from published research. They are modelled, not measured in your workforce.

  • 3.8%new parents losing hours of sleep every night2024 births / June 2026 labour force (worked estimate)
  • 39.8%have inadequate sleep2017
  • A$3,216lost productivity per affected employee each year
Sources
  1. Sleepfit worked estimate: ABS Births, Australia 2024; ABS Labour Force, Australia, June 2026.
  2. Deloitte Access Economics. "Asleep on the Job: Costs of Inadequate Sleep in Australia." Prepared for the Sleep Health Foundation, 2017 (2016-17 data).
  3. Deloitte Access Economics, "Asleep on the Job: Costs of Inadequate Sleep in Australia", prepared for the Sleep Health Foundation, 2017 (2016-17 data), inflated to 2026 AUD.

Stories

When too little sleep led to an accident

Published cases from Australia where short or broken sleep led to a crash or incident: the kind of sleep loss a new baby brings.

  • Aug 1996 · South Australia, Australia

    Interstate driver on 7.5 hours' sleep in five days has microsleeps and kills six; jailed and denied compensation

    • Safety
    • Legal

    An interstate semi-trailer driver drove about 5,400 km in five days, sleeping only about seven and a half hours and using stimulant pills to stay awake. For about 90 km before the crash site his truck weaved onto the wrong side of the road until it collided with two cars, killing six people. The state coroner found his driving was substantially caused by extreme fatigue resulting in microsleeps; he was jailed for death by dangerous driving, and the Workers Compensation Tribunal later refused his own injury claim because he kept driving knowing he was falling asleep.

    Case AU-transport-25Report an issue

See all fatigue news

How it works

Sleep support for new parents, around the clock

Parents with a baby under three get age-and-stage sleep and settling support, built with Tresillian, and a private check of their own mental health that shows whether they may benefit from clinical evaluation. It works at the same level of defence as Sleepfit, the sleep people actually get, aimed at the life stage that disrupts it most.

  1. Step 01

    Register

    A parent with a baby under three registers themselves. No manager involvement at any point.

    Inviting family and friends into a parent’s own support network in SleepWellBaby.

  2. Step 02

    Round-the-clock support

    Age-and-stage sleep and settling support built with Tresillian, drawing on a century of clinical practice.

    SleepWellBaby’s Sleep and Settling library: core philosophy, white noise, sleep wisdom, sleep issues and settling tips.

  3. Step 03

    Reading the baby

    Teaches parents to read their infant’s cues: the mechanism that shortens acute sleep loss.

    Tracking a breastfeed in SleepWellBaby, with a timer for each side.

  4. Step 04

    Mental-health check

    A validated parental mental-health questionnaire (EPDS) that identifies parents who may benefit from clinical evaluation, with an escalation pathway to the individual, never to the employer.

    SleepWellBaby’s guide noticing a parent may be having a hard time, then asking how they have felt over the past seven days, each answered from a short list.

When my daughter finally started sleeping, I felt like I got my life back. Tresillian’s methods did that for us. SleepWellBaby exists so every exhausted parent can have the same help at home, round the clock, without waiting for a place.

Melissa WebsterFounder

Rollout

How we roll it out

  1. Scope

    Agree who is eligible and where new parents will hear about it: parental-leave packs, intranet, EAP.

  2. Set up

    Your access code, eligibility and launch messages, ready to send.

  3. Launch

    Parents register themselves, privately. No manager involvement at any point.

  4. Review

    Aggregate uptake reporting, above a minimum cell size, and what to change.

What the client sees

Who sees what

Cohorts of new parents are small, so re-identification risk is high. A minimum cell size applies to every aggregate figure.

Priced on prevalence, not headcount. How pricing works.

  • The parent

    Everything, privately

    • Their baby’s plan and tracking
    • Sleep and settling support
    • Their own questionnaire result and any letter for their doctor

  • Their manager

    Nothing

    • Whether they registered
    • Anything they track or answer

  • The employer

    Aggregate uptake

    • Aggregate reporting, above a minimum cell size
    • Any individual’s data
    • Any questionnaire result

Evidence

What we can show

NSW Health funded SleepWellBaby for every parent in the state with a baby under three from April 2020. An independent evaluation of the first three months recorded 15,000 app downloads and 13,700 babies registered, with 5,540 parents flagged for further mental-health follow-up on a validated instrument.

What it does not establish

Same boundary as Sleepfit: it identifies people who may benefit from clinical evaluation. It does not diagnose any condition. Only a health professional can do that. For most industries no regulation reaches sleep in new-parent households. This is a workforce decision rather than a compliance one, and it stands on its own merits.

In practice

Public health · New South Wales

NSW Health funded SleepWellBaby for every parent in the state with a baby under three.

The challenge: reach new parents across a whole state with expert sleep and settling support, round the clock, and identify the parents who may benefit from mental-health follow-up.

In the first three months, parents received 3,400 referral letters to take to their doctor (EY independent evaluation, August 2020).

In partnership with

  • Clinical partner

    Co-created the sleep and settling program

    SleepWellBaby adapts Tresillian’s residential and outpatient sleep and settling programs for parents at home. Tresillian’s clinical nursing staff developed, reviewed and approved the content, and teams across Tresillian still shape the program.

  • Funding partner

    Funded SleepWellBaby’s development and first research

    HCF’s grant funded the initial development of SleepWellBaby with Tresillian, and the first research program with UTS. A steering committee of senior people from Tresillian, Sleepfit and HCF oversaw the work.

  • State health partner

    Shaped SleepWellBaby for Tasmanian families

    Tasmania’s Child Health and Parenting Service offers SleepWellBaby free to the state’s parents. Together we tailored helplines, support and some content for Tasmania, aligned the program with how CHaPS works, and extended reporting on postnatal depression and anxiety.

  • Research partner

    Co-evaluated SleepWellBaby with 391 parents

    Researchers at the University of Sydney were part of the independent team that evaluated SleepWellBaby with 391 parents, published in 2026. Parents who engaged more reported larger falls in fatigue; the study had no control group.

  • Research partner

    Independent research partner from the start

    Researchers in midwifery and child and family health at UTS were the independent research partner as SleepWellBaby was developed, and tested its three-item parental mood questionnaire against the EPDS. A UTS researcher later led the independent evaluation.

FAQs

Questions we’re often asked

Who can use it?

Parents with a baby under three. Each parent registers themselves, with no manager involvement at any point.

What does the employer see?

Aggregate reporting only, with a minimum cell size: cohorts of new parents are small, so re-identification risk is high. Never an individual’s data or questionnaire result.

Trust and security Privacy policy

Who developed the content?

Tresillian’s clinical nursing staff developed, reviewed and approved it, adapting Tresillian’s residential and outpatient sleep and settling programs for parents at home.

The science

What happens if a parent’s mental-health questionnaire raises a concern?

SleepWellBaby uses the validated EPDS, with an escalation pathway to the parent themselves, never to the employer.

Does it diagnose postnatal depression?

No. Like Sleepfit, it identifies people who may benefit from clinical evaluation. It does not diagnose any condition. Only a health professional can do that.

Can a parent delete their account and data?

Yes, at any time, in the app or by request. All personal data associated with the account is removed, and deletion can’t be undone.

Delete an account

Pathways

Where to go next

SleepWellBaby and regulation across 33 industries in Australia

33 / 33

A voluntary benefit, not a regulatory requirement

See how SleepWellBaby fits the regulation in your industry, and what else we would start with there.

All 33 industries

Other solutions interconnected with SleepWellBaby

Level 2

Sleepfit

Cover the rest of your workforce with the same privacy model.

Interested in SleepWellBaby for your organisation?

Tell us a little about your organisation and which solutions you’re looking at, and our team will be in touch.

Express interest See your workforce snapshot
SleepWellBaby’s home screen: the afternoon zone’s feed, play and sleep plan, with a sleep tip for the baby’s age.