A sleep consultancy has partnered up with a nursery group in the aim of continuing to enhance children’s sleep on the Isle of Man.

Simply Sleep and Hopes and Dreams have joined forces, and the collaboration is deemed to be the first of its kind on the island.

The partnership consists of training and parental support for staff at Hopes and Dreams nursery, and will see several other incentives being rolled out to help support sleep for children in childcare settings.

Hopes and Dreams has six nurseries across the island, from Ramsey to Port Erin, are has served 2,435 families and over 3,335 children since they formed in 1999.

Simply Sleep was set up in July 2021 by two mothers, Rebekah Dalrymple and Emma Riley, who like most parents experienced periods in their lives where putting their children to sleep was difficult.

After going through sleep journeys with their own children, and becoming proud parents of good sleepers, the pair wanted to make a difference. Understanding firsthand that sleep improves overall health and quality of life, they set out to ‘make sleep the new normal’, and now operate a business that helps parents and children who were in the position they were, struggling to get the rest they needed.

Now teaming up with the nursery, directors Rebekah and Emma explained why they believed it was important to work with the childcare sector more closely and how the partnership came about.

They said: ‘We support hundreds of families across the island to sleep well using our tailored sleep plans, however, a common concern that parents have is the willingness of their childcare providers to co-operate.

‘Consistency is key for our plans to work and the last thing we want is to set our clients up for failure, so it made sense to us that we should be working more closely with this sector.

‘We reached out to Laura and Gary Pierce (directors of Hopes and Dreams) to start the conversation and we’re delighted at how open and aligned they were to our vision.

‘Since then, we have been working with Hopes and Dreams, to deliver staff training on the sleep needs of each child in their care and have given them the tools needed to have positive conversations with parents in need of support.’ Laura and Gary commented: ‘We pride ourselves on our unique play-based curriculum, founded on the latest brain development studies of children. But the reality is that without sleep, the curiosity and wonder that we try to evoke in every child, can be significantly hindered.

‘Children who don’t get consistently good sleep struggle with their brain development and emotional regulation, the foundations to confident and happy learning.

‘It goes without saying that as childcare providers we provide a safe and comfortable sleep environment for the children in our care, but we always strive to go beyond the expected.

‘By working in partnership with Simply Sleep, we have been able to provide our team of childcare experts with additional knowledge and skills that enable us to understand and support childhood wellbeing, like no other childcare setting on island.’

The collaboration extends beyond sleep in a nursey setting however, as Simply Sleep will be providing parent support workshops, monthly blogs and free initial consultations to Hopes and Dreams parents and carers.

The first workshop will be held on Wednesday, March 27 and details on how to book in can be found on the Famly app. To find out more about Hopes and Dreams, visit: https://hopesanddreams.co.im/.

And to discover more about what Simply Sleep offer, visit: https://simply-sleep.co.uk/home