The Sleep & Dream Foundation
Restoring sleep for children recovering from trauma
After fifteen years working as a sleep therapist and educator, I was still healing parts of my own childhood.
As I reconnected with my seven-year-old self, I became more aware of children living through deeply difficult experiences who needed help to feel settled enough to sleep peacefully.
That awareness became the beginning of the Sleep & Dream Foundation.
It began with a little book
I began thinking about children forced to leave home after family and domestic violence. How they would face bedtime in an unfamiliar room, in a different bed, surrounded by sounds and people they didn’t know.
Leaving danger behind doesn’t mean a child can suddenly close their eyes and rest.
I wrote The Sleep & Dream Book for them—to help them develop inner skills for finding calm and comfort during an unsettled time, especially at night.
I began donating it to organisations supporting children and families. After 1,500 books, requests were still coming. They showed me how much this support was needed.
In 2017, I established the Foundation as a registered Australian charity so the work could continue to grow.
Helping sleep become possible
After trauma, a child’s body may still be braced for danger, even when their surroundings have become safer. Bedtime can bring fear, and it may be hard to settle or stay asleep.
I saw how much care was needed around these children’s nights—for someone to notice their difficulty, understand it and gently help.
Over the years, that intention grew into Dreaming Beyond Trauma, our initiative bringing sleep care into women’s shelters.
We begin with the shelter itself and the people caring for families. Softer evening lighting helps create surroundings more supportive of rest. We help staff understand why sleep may be difficult and how to offer gentle, practical support.
The same shelter bedroom before and after amber lighting—one of the gentle changes helping make evenings more restful for children and mums.
Sleep packs deepen that support, giving children and mums resources they can use and keep. A book read together. A comforting object that becomes familiar. Something to carry into their next home.
The care continues through small conversations, manageable suggestions and checking in about what helps. Each family can find its own way with the support available.
What we’re beginning to see
We’re now working with shelters in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
Early findings are encouraging. So far, every child followed through structured sleep observations has shown improvement. We’re continuing to learn from these observations and from mothers’ and shelter teams’ experiences as the work grows.
One mother shared:
“He’s nowhere near as restless through the night now, and falls into such a calm mindset after reading the Sleep & Dream Book with an amber light.”
A growing culture of sleep care
Staff are supported with their own sleep, too. We’re beginning to see sleep become part of everyday conversations and care—for the families staying in the shelter and the people supporting them.
As this understanding becomes part of how a shelter works, it can support the families who arrive next.
Alongside this practical work, I’m continuing to explore the relationship between sleep and recovery. In 2025, I developed the STAR Loop, a conceptual model examining how they may support one another. It helps guide the questions I’m asking as the work develops.
What I hope for
I want children recovering from trauma to receive thoughtful care for their sleep, wherever they’re being supported.
Women’s shelters are where we’re putting that hope into practice today. My wider intention is for sleep to be understood and cared for as an integral part of trauma recovery.
This work began with my own healing. It has grown through listening to children, mothers and the people caring for them, and responding to what they need.
My hope is that more children can experience the comfort of a peaceful night, with the care around them to support their recovery.
You’re warmly invited to learn more about the Foundation and what we’re discovering.