Daniel’s story · Co-founder and CEO
The sleep disorder nobody screened for.
Daniel’s father was killed by a driver with undiagnosed sleep apnea who fell asleep at the wheel. Everything Daniel has built since starts there.
Melissa’s story · Melissa Webster, Founder
Sleep starts at home.
Melissa came to sleep at home, as a new parent: a daughter whose nights she was still learning to read, and a husband who lived with chronic insomnia. Everything she has built since starts there.
Where it started
Melissa came to sleep the way most people do: at home, as a new parent. Her daughter’s nights were broken, and her husband lived with chronic insomnia. Two kinds of lost sleep under one roof.
Her biggest lesson, she has said, was learning what was normal for a baby her daughter’s age, from the number of sleeps and feeds to how often she might wake, and then being persistent and consistent towards a routine.
Tresillian’s methods
Melissa followed Tresillian’s methods with her daughter, reading everything they shared with parents. It changed how she understood her baby’s sleep, and it made her want to work with them.
- More than 100 years of clinical practice in infant sleep and settling
- Help for more than 60,000 families a year
- Residential places in high demand, with waits
She wanted every exhausted parent to have that help, without the wait.
One mum’s words drove the design:“I want to do the work, but I just don’t know what the work is! Help me.”
SleepWellBaby is the answer to that mum. Launched in 2019 with Tresillian, and built with HCF and midwifery specialists at UTS, it brings Tresillian’s residential sleep and settling program into parents’ homes: a seven-day program for children up to two and a half.
It also screens parents privately for postnatal depression on a validated instrument, and gives each one a route to help.
As a parent
With Tresillian
At First5Years
Broken sleep at home doesn’t stay at home. It comes to work every morning.
What she built alongside Daniel
Melissa’s focus was Sleepfit and SleepWellBaby: finding the sleep problems people never report, and supporting parents through the months that most reliably break their sleep.
That work provided the foundations for Fatiguefit.
SleepWellBaby’s impact
From April 2020, NSW Health funded SleepWellBaby for every parent in the state with a baby under three, reaching some 30,000 parents. EY’s independent evaluation of the first three months found:
- 13,700babies registered in the first three months
- 5,540parents flagged for further mental-health follow-up on a validated instrument
- 3,400referral letters for parents to take to their doctor
- $5.52in social value for every dollar invested
Source: EY, Tresillian SleepWellBaby Evaluation Report (August 2020), commissioned by Tresillian. Figures cover the first three months of NSW Health funding.
How we grade our evidenceNow: First5Years
Melissa has since taken what she learned into her own venture. She owns three First5Years childcare centers, and every day she sees the early years up close: the families, the educators, and how much of a household’s wellbeing rests on everyone getting enough sleep.
Visit First5YearsIt became a passion and priority for me to combine Tresillian’s 100 years of expertise and nurturing with Sleepfit’s medical and digital expertise to create this SleepWellBaby app.
Melissa WebsterFounderHealth & Wellbeing
New parents are already in your workforce
A new baby is the most predictable cause of broken sleep in any workforce, and one of the least discussed. Sleepfit and SleepWellBaby find the sleep problems your people never report, privately, and give each person a route to help.
Find the sleep problems your people never report.
Start with a snapshot of how your workforce is likely sleeping, new parents included, and where Sleepfit and SleepWellBaby fit.
