How Huckleberry Creates a Personalized Sleep Plan For A Family

Hi, welcome to Huckleberry!

Now that you’ve discovered us, I bet you’re wondering what we do behind the scenes to come up with the sleep advice in your plan, right?  We have a dedicated team of developers and sleep consultants who work to get you, and your child, more sleep. We’re parents ourselves, so know what it’s like.

As a Huckleberry sleep expert, I look forward to providing a custom plan to amazing parents all over the world, and give each one the personal attention needed to ensure your individual child’s sleep success.  Sleep is especially important for the wellbeing and development of children, so we take this very seriously here at Huckleberry.

First, I get to know you

First, I get to know you through your submitted profile. I note your child’s age, along with anything else that may play a role in your recommendations (e.g., in some countries, co-sleeping or late dinner times are the cultural norm).

I analyze your sleep data

Next I look at the sleep data, facilitated by a special Huckleberry portal to make this part easier and more accurate.  (See, the data you tracked was worth it!) I look at the total amount of sleep, spacing of sleep, amount of night sleep, number of naps, amount of day sleep your child is getting, and more.  I look to see if there are timing-related factors contributing to sleep.

For example, if your child is waking up at 5am, is it because there’s too much day sleep (making night sleep shorter), or is there too little day sleep (making bedtime too early, resulting in an early rising)? Or maybe day sleep is just right and there are other factors at play.  What’s the child’s mood before and after sleep? I look at the whole picture because a child’s day and night sleep affect one another.

I also read notes left in the sleep logs .  These notes can offer some initial clues into the final recommendations for helping your family get more rest.  Some notes are all too relatable (“The doorbell rang and it woke her up!” or “Finally fell asleep after rocking for 30 mins but woke up as soon as I laid him down.”).  Yep, been there too.

I go through your questionnaire responses

Next I take a closer look at your Questionnaire responses.  If you’ve completed our survey, you’ll notice the questions we ask are pretty detailed.  Your answers provide great information about your little one’s sleep. It is important that we provide a plan that fits your family.  

For example, some have to pick up a sibling from school, and the schedule needs to work around it. Some are breastfeeding and want to keep a couple night feedings, while others are ready to night wean.  Combined with your child’s sleep data, I have a good picture of what’s going on. I start envisioning what your custom plan will include, and make sure it balances your goals, family’s needs, and your child’s needs.

The algorithms ensure high quality and a second opinion

I want to mention one more thing - the data science!  The data scientist creators (and formerly tired parents!) behind Huckleberry have come up with an ingenious way to use your tracked sleep data and survey answers to create algorithms that generate the perfectly age-appropriate schedule for your child.  It also identifies patterns and suggests likely issues and solutions. Having both algorithms and a sleep consultant go over your data and plan is like getting two specialist reviews.

Expert advice, at just the right time

My job is to ensure that the final master schedule and recommendations we send you are all that you need.  If you already have something mastered (like falling asleep unassisted), we won’t clog up your recommendations with more information on that topic.  

Your Huckleberry Plan will only contain relevant elements - starting with those that are the easiest to implement in the first week of your plan, such as the schedule, your child’s eating, and preparing the room environment.  We then go beyond that week to set you up for success at each stage, providing what we know your child will be ready for. This could be changes to the routine at the beginning of the night, how your child falls asleep for the first nap of the day, and of course, those pesky middle-of-the-night wakings!  It’s all laid out in an easy to understand way (great for tired parents!), along with very important Q & As at the end of each recommendation.

Your advice evolves as your child grows

The best thing?  We update this as your child’s needs change.  Just as your child’s nutritional needs change, sleep changes as well.  We’ve got you covered.

We look forward to diving in and being a part of your parenting journey.  Get ready to head for Sleepytown!

-Huckleberry Sleep Team