Sleep support for children with special needs — because your family deserves rest, too.
Certified, specialized paediatric sleep consulting for children with autism, ADHD, sensory processing differences, developmental delays, and chronic medical conditions. Canadian-rooted. Evidence-based. Built to work with how your child actually experiences the world.
- Institute of Pediatric Sleep & Parenting certified
- Integrated with your child’s existing care team
- Dedicated medical emergency training via Life Safe
- Serving families across Canada
Not ready yet? Download our free Special Needs Sleep Starter Guide →
We see you. We’re built for this.
If you’ve landed on this page, there’s a good chance you’ve been through a lot already.
You’ve tried the generic sleep training that was supposed to work for every child — and didn’t. You’ve been told by well-meaning people that your child “will eventually sleep better,” despite years of evidence suggesting that’s not how this is going to resolve on its own. You’ve lost count of the professionals who said things like “sleep training probably won’t work for kids like yours” — as if that was a reason to stop trying rather than a reason to find someone who actually knew what they were doing.
I built this service specifically for you.
Sleep Ready is one of the few Canadian paediatric sleep practices with dedicated certification in Special Needs Sleep through the Institute of Pediatric Sleep and Parenting. That matters, because sleep for a neurodivergent or medically complex child isn’t generic sleep training with a few tweaks. It’s a fundamentally different clinical problem that requires a fundamentally different approach — one rooted in sensory regulation, neurobiology, medical coordination, and a deep respect for how your specific child actually experiences the world.
You’re not failing. The system has been failing you. Let’s do this differently.
Why the usual advice doesn’t work — and what actually does.
Most mainstream paediatric sleep training is built around neurotypical children’s sleep physiology. It assumes typical circadian rhythm development, typical sensory integration, typical capacity for self-regulation. Many neurodivergent and medically complex children don’t fit those assumptions. That’s not a flaw in your child. It’s a flaw in the advice.
Melatonin production is often different.
Children with autism and ADHD frequently produce melatonin on altered schedules or at reduced levels. This isn’t a behaviour problem — it’s a neurobiological one. Plans that ignore this fail predictably. Plans that account for it work.
Sensory regulation matters more than behaviour modification.
For many neurodivergent children, “bedtime resistance” isn’t resistance — it’s the nervous system struggling to down-regulate from the day. Tactics that try to shape behaviour without addressing sensory input will keep failing until we address the input side.
Rigidity around routines can be leveraged, not fought.
Some children (particularly on the autism spectrum) thrive on predictability. Rather than treating rigidity as a problem to overcome, we design sleep routines that work with it — using the preference for predictability as a feature, not a bug.
Co-regulation needs are different.
Neurodivergent kids often need more, longer, or different forms of co-regulation before they can self-regulate into sleep. Plans that push toward independence too quickly create anxiety spirals. Plans that honour co-regulation first and scaffold toward independence actually get there.
Anxiety and transitions trigger differently.
Sleep involves multiple transitions: activity to quiet, light to dark, together to alone, awake to asleep. Each of these transitions can be harder for a neurodivergent child. We design routines that slow transitions, signal predictability, and reduce the cognitive load of each shift.
Medication schedules impact sleep windows.
For children on stimulants, anticonvulsants, SSRIs, or other medications, the timing and half-life of doses directly shape the sleep window. Generic sleep training ignores this. We build around it, in coordination with your child’s prescribing provider.
The children we specialize in.
We work with Canadian families whose children are navigating a broad range of neurodevelopmental, medical, and situational complexity.
Neurodevelopmental profiles
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- ADHD
- Sensory Processing Differences (SPD)
- Developmental delays and genetic differences
- Anxiety disorders and sleep-related anxiety
- Combined profiles (autism + ADHD, ADHD + anxiety, etc.)
Medical complexity
- Epilepsy and seizure disorders
- Paediatric sleep apnea (post-diagnosis, often post-surgical)
- Severe reflux and feeding-related sleep disruption
- Asthma and chronic respiratory conditions
- Severe food allergies with overnight safety impact
- Children with feeding tubes (NG, G-tube)
- Chronic pain or inflammatory conditions
- Post-surgical recovery
Situations we frequently support
- Children who’ve regressed sleep-wise after a diagnosis
- Siblings whose sleep is impacted by a brother or sister’s needs
- Families recovering from the “we’ve tried everything” exhaustion
- Parents who were told sleep training wouldn’t work for their child
If your child’s situation isn’t listed, that doesn’t mean we can’t help. Book a discovery call and we’ll talk through whether it’s a fit. If it isn’t, I’ll tell you — and if I know someone better positioned to support you, I’ll point you their way.
How a Special Needs Sleep plan is different.
Every Sleep Ready plan starts with the specific child in front of us. For special needs consultations, that means a significantly deeper assessment than a standard paediatric sleep intake.
What a Special Needs Sleep assessment includes
- Comprehensive medical and developmental history — current and past diagnoses, medications and their half-lives, therapy history (OT, ABA, speech, PT), sensory profile, feeding history, and medical events impacting sleep.
- Sensory profile review — understanding how your child experiences sound, light, temperature, touch, movement, and interoception. What regulates them, what dysregulates them, and what the bedtime routine can be built around.
- Family and sibling dynamics — how your child’s sleep is affecting the rest of the household, what realistic goals look like for everyone, and where the sustainable interventions actually are.
- Medical team coordination — with your consent, I connect with your child’s paediatrician, developmental paediatrician, OT, behaviour therapist, or other relevant providers so the plan integrates rather than conflicts.
- Realistic goal-setting — special needs sleep work is rarely about “sleeping through the night in 11 days.” It’s about meaningful, sustained improvement, defined in terms that honour your child’s specific profile.
What the plan itself looks like
A Sleep Ready Special Needs plan is typically significantly longer than a standard paediatric sleep plan — often 20+ pages — and includes:
- Customized sensory-regulation protocol for the hour before bed
- Adapted bedtime routine engineered around predictability and transitions
- Sleep environment recommendations tailored to your child’s sensory profile (lighting, sound, temperature, textures, visual stimulation)
- Medication timing coordination (where relevant, in discussion with your prescribing provider)
- Strategies for the specific sleep-disruption patterns your child exhibits
- Anxiety-reduction scripts and visual supports
- A realistic timeline and phased approach
- Troubleshooting for common setbacks
- A communication plan that includes the other adults in your child’s life (co-parents, grandparents, respite caregivers, therapists)
This is detailed work. It takes longer. It costs more. And for the families who need it, it’s the difference between years of compounding exhaustion and a family that can actually function.
We work with your medical team, not around them.
Most families of neurodivergent or medically complex children already have a care team. Sleep Ready’s Special Needs Sleep work is explicitly designed to integrate with your existing team — additive, not competing.
Direct outreach to your child’s providers
With your consent, I reach out directly to your child’s paediatrician or other key providers to understand what they’re working on, what they recommend, and what they’d like incorporated into the plan.
Medical issues take priority
If a medical issue emerges mid-plan that needs paediatrician attention (new breathing concerns, seizure pattern change, medication adjustment), we pause the sleep work and defer to medical.
Alignment with OT and therapy goals
If your OT is working on sensory regulation goals, the sleep plan builds on those same foundations rather than pulling in a different direction. If your child is in ABA or other behavioural therapy, we align with those frameworks where appropriate.
A plan the whole team can share
Written plans are shareable with the rest of your team, so everyone is working from the same page. Your medical team is your child’s team. We’re additive — not competing.
Specialized safety training for complex medical needs.
Your child’s sleep plan is one part of a larger picture. For families managing epilepsy, severe allergies, feeding-tube logistics, or other medically complex situations, the other critical part is knowing — with confidence — what to do in an emergency.
I’m also the founder and lead instructor of Life Safe, our sister practice dedicated to First Aid and CPR training. For over a decade, I’ve taught Canadian parents and caregivers how to respond in paediatric emergencies — and for Sleep Ready’s Special Needs Sleep families, we offer tailored training modules that go beyond generic infant CPR.
Seizure response
How to recognize, respond to, and document paediatric seizures overnight. Positioning, safety, when to call 911, when to administer rescue medications, how to document post-ictally.
Severe allergy & anaphylaxis
EpiPen administration, follow-up care, and the specific protocols for overnight reactions — including what to watch for in the hours afterward.
Choking & airway support
For children with feeding tubes, swallowing difficulties, or complex feeding histories — responses calibrated to children whose anatomy or medical context isn’t standard.
Paediatric CPR for complex kids
Adapted for children with underlying cardiac conditions, respiratory issues, or post-surgical considerations. Same credential, different application.
Medication administration
Protocols for nighttime emergencies — rescue medications, dosing under duress, documentation, and communication with your child’s medical team.
In-home & virtual delivery
Life Safe medical emergency training can be added to any Special Needs Sleep package or booked independently. In-home across Ontario, virtually across Canada.
For the parents who spend every night in a low-grade state of vigilance, this training doesn’t just teach skills. It returns something you didn’t realize the medical system had taken: a portion of your nervous system back.
What working with me actually looks like.
A free 20-minute discovery call.
Slightly longer than our standard call. We’ll talk through your child’s profile, diagnoses, existing care team, sleep history, what you’ve tried, and what you’re hoping for. If I’m the right consultant, we’ll book. If a different consultant or specialist is a better fit, I’ll tell you and point you there.
Deep intake and sensory profile.
Once you book, you complete a comprehensive intake that goes well beyond standard paediatric sleep assessment. Developmental history, medical history, sensory profile, medication schedule, therapy history, family dynamics, and what “success” looks like for your family.
Medical team coordination (with your consent).
I reach out to your child’s paediatrician or other key providers. Optional but strongly recommended — the plan is substantially better when it’s built in conversation with the rest of the team.
Customized plan + working session.
We meet (video or in-home) for a 90-minute session, walk through your child’s situation in depth, and I deliver a detailed written plan. You leave with a plan you understand and can actually execute.
Extended active support.
Special Needs families get longer support periods than standard packages because the work often requires more adjustment, more troubleshooting, and more time. Real responses from me — not a team, not a bot — within hours.
Follow-up + optional safety integration.
Once your child’s sleep is in a better place, we close with follow-up calls and — if you want — integrate Life Safe medical emergency training into your family’s overall preparedness.
Support that reflects the depth of the work.
Special Needs Sleep packages are structured differently from standard Sleep Ready offerings. More assessment, more coordination, longer support periods, deeper written plans.
- Special Needs Sleep — FoundationsFor families with a defined sleep challenge and an existing care team we can coordinate with.
- Special Needs Sleep — Full IntegrationFor families navigating layered complexity who want the full integrated Sleep Ready + Life Safe experience. Our most-chosen tier.
- Ongoing Support (monthly)For families with long-term support needs — complex medical situations, multiple children with special needs, or ongoing developmental transitions.
Download the Special Needs Sleep Starter Guide
Before you book anything, download the free guide. Twelve pages covering sensory regulation basics, medication-timing considerations, melatonin and neurodivergent sleep, and a framework for designing a bedtime routine your specific child can actually settle into. Built for autism, ADHD, and sensory-processing profiles.
Download the Starter Guide →What Canadian parents of neurodivergent and medically complex children tell us.
“My son is 6 and on the spectrum. We’d worked with two sleep consultants before Milos who basically gave up on us. He actually understood sensory regulation, coordinated with our OT, and built a plan that worked — slowly, but really. He’s been sleeping 10 hours a night for four months now. It changed our whole family’s life.”
“My daughter has epilepsy and sleep apnea. Milos built her sleep plan with her neurologist in the loop, and then trained my wife and me on overnight seizure response. Both things came from the same person. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this prepared as a parent.”
“Twin boys, both with ADHD, different medication schedules, opposite sleep needs. It was chaos. Milos untangled it into a plan that works for both of them — and the fact that he’s a twin dad himself meant he actually got what our daily life looked like.”
What parents of special needs children ask before they book.
Do I need a formal diagnosis to work with you?
No. Many families come to Sleep Ready while they’re still navigating the diagnostic process, or while they’re on waitlists. If your child presents with sleep issues that suggest neurodivergence or medical complexity, we can work with what we have. A formal diagnosis can help refine the plan, but it’s not a prerequisite.
My child is already in OT / ABA / speech therapy. Will you conflict with their approach?
No. My job is to integrate with the work your team is already doing, not to pull in a different direction. With your consent, I’ll coordinate directly with your OT, behaviour therapist, or other providers so we’re all aligned.
My child is on medication — can we still do sleep work?
In most cases, yes — and medication timing often becomes a tool in the plan rather than a barrier. Where relevant, I coordinate with your prescribing provider so we’re not working against your medication schedule.
My child has epilepsy / seizure disorder. Is sleep training safe?
Sleep consolidation can actually support seizure control in many cases, because irregular sleep is a known seizure trigger. We work in close coordination with your neurologist or paediatrician, and Life Safe’s tailored seizure-response training is often integrated for families in this situation.
What if my child is non-verbal?
Many of the children we work with are non-verbal or minimally verbal. Our approach relies heavily on sensory, behavioural, and environmental signals — not just verbal communication. We’ll build the plan around how your child actually communicates, whatever form that takes.
What if we’ve tried sleep training before and it didn’t work?
Very common. Most of our Special Needs families have tried something before — and it’s almost always a case of a plan that didn’t account for the specific neurological or medical realities of the child. A properly designed special needs plan is a fundamentally different intervention.
How long does this typically take?
Realistically: longer than neurotypical sleep training. Most Special Needs Sleep plans show meaningful improvement in 3–6 weeks, with continued refinement over the following months. We give you realistic expectations upfront.
Is any of this covered by Canadian insurance or benefits plans?
Varies significantly by plan. Some extended benefits cover paediatric sleep consulting under wellness or dependent care budgets. Some families use disability tax credits or special needs funding (for example, Ontario Autism Program funding, where applicable). Detailed receipts are provided. Ask your benefits provider and your child’s diagnostic service coordinator.
My child has a rare condition you didn’t list. Can you still help?
Possibly. Book the discovery call. If your child’s condition is outside my scope, I’ll tell you honestly — and I maintain a referral network of other Canadian specialists and will point you to someone more appropriate.
What does a sibling situation look like — can you help both kids?
Yes. Siblings of special needs children often have their own sleep disruption as a result of the family system. We can address both children in an integrated plan or run parallel sleep work, whichever fits best.
Do you work with same-sex parents, single parents, and non-traditional families?
Always. Special needs parenting comes in every family configuration, and Sleep Ready is built to support all of them.
Do you work virtually, or only in-person?
Both. Virtual consultations are available across Canada. In-home services are available in most of Ontario. Many special needs families prefer in-home because I can observe the sleep environment directly — but it’s not required.
Free reading on special needs sleep
In-depth guides for families of neurodivergent and medically complex children.
Why Standard Sleep Training Doesn’t Work for Autistic Children — And What Does
The seven specific reasons standard sleep training frameworks don’t work for autistic children, and the regulation-first approach that does.
Read the article → Special needsADHD and Sleep in Children — A Canadian Parent’s Evidence-Based Guide
Stimulant timing, the cortisol cycle, and what an ADHD-aware paediatric sleep plan actually accounts for.
Read the article → Special needsSleep Support for Children with Epilepsy — A Safety-First Framework for Canadian Families
How paediatric sleep planning coordinates with neurology, the safety layer that has to be in place, and when to escalate to a sleep clinic.
Read the article → Special needsMelatonin for Children: An Evidence-Based Canadian Guide
An evidence-based guide to melatonin for children in Canada: what it is, supplement quality, where the evidence is strongest, and when to ask your doctor.
Read the article → Special needsSensory Processing and Sleep: Helping a Sensory-Sensitive Child Rest
Why sensory processing differences make sleep hard, and how to build a sensory-smart bedtime, from a paediatric sleep consultant.
Read the article → Special needsDown Syndrome and Sleep: A Canadian Parent’s Guide
Why sleep is harder for children with Down syndrome, why obstructive sleep apnea must be ruled out first, and how to support sleep — from a Canadian consultant.
Read the article →Let’s build a plan that finally fits your child.
You’ve done more than the system has given you credit for. You don’t need another generic sleep method — you need a consultant who understands your child specifically, works with the team you’ve already built, and respects what you already know.
No pressure. No pitch. Just a real conversation — dad to parent.
Rested child. Prepared parent. Whole-family peace of mind — for every family.