Nurturing Rest, Supporting Growth

Supporting families through personalized sleep solutions for children with autism, Autism RestWise focuses on improving sleep quality to enhance overall family well-being and daily functioning.

Welcome to Autism RestWise, where families receive personalized support directly from a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Certified Behavioral Sleep Specialist. Focused on nurturing sleep to support growth for children with autism, tailored strategies are created to address sleep challenges and foster a restful environment for the whole family.

Why Autism RestWise…

Hi, I’m Natanielle! At Autism RestWise, you will find professional expertise with personal experience to provide families with the tools they need to help their children thrive. As both a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and a mother of a child with autism, I understand the challenges of sleep struggles and how they impact daily life.

Personal Journey

Being a mother of a child with autism, I’ve personally faced the exhaustion and stress that comes with sleep challenges. My journey has given me a deep understanding of the unique needs families face, and it’s this personal connection that inspired me to start Autism RestWise. I combine my professional skills with empathy and insight from my own experience to help families find peace and restful nights. I also understand the current challenges to obtaining quality care.

RESTWISE

Restoration: Focus on restoring healthy sleep patterns for children with autism.

Education: Empower families with the knowledge needed to understand and address unique sleep challenges.

Support: Provide compassionate, ongoing support tailored to each family’s needs.

Therapy: Utilize evidence-based behavioral therapy strategies proven effective in addressing sleep problems in children.

Wellness: Emphasize that good sleep is essential for the overall wellness of both the child and the family.

Individualized: Create personalized, child-specific plans to meet each family’s unique sleep challenges and goals.

Strategies: Offer practical, actionable strategies for families to implement in their daily lives to establish lasting sleep habits.

Empowerment: Equip families with the tools and confidence needed to take control of their child’s sleep health, fostering independence and resilience.

Expert Approach

As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and Certified Behavioral Sleep Specialist, I specialize in working with children with autism and their families to develop effective sleep strategies. With years of experience in Applied Behavior Analysis, I am dedicated to helping families navigate sleep challenges and improve overall well-being. Using the RESTWISE approach, individualized plans are tailored to focus on long-term success.

Sleep Facts

  • Your Brain and Sleep

    During sleep, our brains go through complex cycles that involve memory consolidation, emotional processing, and waste clearance. Non-REM sleep is particularly important for memory, while REM sleep, often associated with dreams, supports mood regulation and creativity. Sleep plays a crucial role in what’s known as brain plasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and grow based on experience, making it vital for learning and mental clarity at all ages.

    During sleep, the brain processes the day’s lessons, helping kids retain information and improve focus. Well-rested children often find it easier to concentrate, solve problems, and control their emotions, making both schoolwork and family interactions smoother. Without enough quality sleep, kids might feel irritable, struggle to remember new information, and have a harder time focusing, impacting their experiences at school and at home.

  • Aging and Sleep

    As we age, our sleep patterns change. Older adults often experience less deep sleep and more frequent awakenings, which can reduce the restorative effects of sleep. While younger people spend more time in deep and REM sleep stages, aging bodies often experience lighter, shorter sleep cycles, partly due to shifts in melatonin levels and the natural sleep-wake cycle. However, prioritizing quality sleep as we age is important to maintain cognitive health, immune strength, and emotional resilience.

    Young children need extra sleep for their developing brains and bodies, while teenagers often require more to support their busy schedules. When kids don’t sleep well, it can affect their mood, energy, and learning. By helping every family member prioritize sleep, households can experience a calmer atmosphere and better communication, supporting each person’s growth and well-being.

  • Health and Sleep

    Quality sleep is fundamental for overall health, impacting everything from metabolism and immunity to cardiovascular health. Studies show that sleep helps regulate blood pressure, supports healthy weight management, and strengthens immune responses. Additionally, sleep helps clear toxins from the brain, reducing risks of neurodegenerative diseases. Poor sleep can exacerbate conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and mood disorders, highlighting sleep’s role as a preventive health measure.

    For children, sleep fuels both brain and body development, while inadequate sleep can lead to frequent illnesses, poor focus, and stress. When families make sleep a priority, everyone feels happier and more engaged in daily activities. In the classroom, well-rested children are often more ready to learn and participate, leading to positive outcomes.

Common Sleep Challenges.

  • Before diving into treatment strategies, it's important to understand the most common sleep challenges children often face. Recognizing these issues helps lay the foundation for creating effective solutions to improve sleep.

  • Difficulty Falling Asleep

    Many children have difficulty falling asleep, often due to irregular bedtime routines, too much screen time before bed, bedtime is too early, or overstimulation.

  • Night Wakings

    Frequent awakenings during the night can stem from nightmares, deficient sleep dependencies, medications, or other disruptions. These interruptions affect both the child and the caregiver’s sleep quality.

  • Early Awakening

    Waking up too early is another common sleep issue, leading to insufficient rest and impacting the child’s mood and behavior during the day.

  • Nursing/Bottle Feeding Past Preschool Age

    Extended reliance on nursing or bottle feeding for comfort at bedtime can make sleep initiation dependent on feeding cues rather than natural sleep rhythms. This may contribute to frequent night wakings and difficulties transitioning to self-soothing strategies.

  • Screen Time Challenges

    Excessive screen use, especially before bedtime, can significantly delay sleep onset, meaning it can take longer for children to fall asleep. This may be due to overstimulation from engaging content or the lack of self-regulation skills to turn off devices at an appropriate time. As a result, children may struggle to transition to sleep without challenging behaviors occurring.

  • Co-Sleeping into Adolescence

    Many children with autism continue co-sleeping with a caregiver well into their teenage years due to separation anxiety, sensory sensitivities, and difficulty establishing independent sleep habits. This can impact both the child’s and caregiver’s sleep quality and overall independence.

  • Displaced Parental Figures

    Displaced parental figures refer to situations where children, due to sleep challenges, frequently wake during the night and seek comfort in their parents’ bedroom, or even fall asleep there initially. This can make it difficult for parents to maintain their own restful sleep, as the presence of their child in the bed disrupts their ability to sleep comfortably.

Our Approach to Sleep Support

Autism RestWise takes a gentle, non-invasive approach to improving sleep while maintaining a family’s quality of life. The method focuses on slow, incremental changes that feel natural and supportive, never overwhelming. Harsh techniques or strategies that might increase challenging behaviors are never used-every adjustment is intended to promote calm, comfort, and success. By tailoring sleep solutions to each child’s unique needs, this approach helps families establish smoother bedtimes, better sleep routines, and more restful nights-without unnecessary stress. Grounded in evidence-based strategies, this process ensures that every step is effective, practical, and aligned the a child’s well-being, helping the entire family move toward healthier sleep with confidence. 

Skills to Support Healthy Sleep.

  • Once common sleep challenges are identified, the focus shifts to building essential skills that help children develop healthy sleep habits. These skills are practiced during the day to make bedtime smoother and sleep more restful.

  • Calming Bedtime Routine

    Establishing a predictable and relaxing routine before bed helps signal to the body that it’s time to sleep.

  • Adjusting Sleep Schedule

    Gradually shifting bedtime and wake-up times can help align sleep patterns with the child’s natural rhythms.

  • Waiting and Healthy Separation

    Teaching children to wait for longer intervals before seeking comfort helps them learn to self-soothe at night and encouraging children to feel secure sleeping independently reduces dependency of caregiver’s presence.

  • Transitions from Activities

    Helping children move smoothly from one activity to another during the day, especially activities that are highly preferred, will allow for smoother transitions during the bedtime routine.

Consultation

The consultation is designed to help families explore if Autism RestWise is the right fit for their unique needs. During this initial conversation, we’ll talk about the specific challenges and goals your family has around sleep.

Assessment

The assessment process aims to gather information about your child’s sleep routine, environment, and current sleep patterns. This helps identify key factors affecting sleep and allows for a comprehensive understanding of your child’s unique needs. The goal is to build a clear picture of their sleep habits.

Support

Using information from the assessment, a customized sleep plan is created. Throughout this process, we work closely with you, providing guidance and support to help achieve lasting, positive changes in your child’s sleep patterns.

Achieving Better Sleep, Together

Assessment & Sleep Plan Development

The assessment phase is an essential first step in creating a sleep solution that works for your family. It involves a thorough interview and questionnaires to gather information about your child’s sleep habits and the factors that may be influencing them. This helps identify the root causes of sleep challenges and provides us with the details needed to create a personalized sleep plan.

Sleep support may include various components to support caregivers such as, adjusting sleep schedules, helping to establish sleep routines or even working on independent sleep, to name a few. Whichever tools and strategies families choose, the level of support will be uniquely designed to meet your family’s specific needs, with clear and realistic expectations set from the outset. This ensures that we have a shared understanding of what success looks like and the steps necessary to achieve it. Transparency is key in this process, so you can feel confident that the plan is tailored to what will work best for your child’s progress and your family’s lifestyle.

Benefits for All

As your child begins to sleep better, you may notice more energy, patience, and overall well-being within your family. Parents often feel more rested, which leads to better interactions and more time for family activities. A better rested child can show greater focus and emotional regulation, which in turn reduces stress and challenges for the whole family.

Sleep improvements are not just about better nights for your child, they create a more balanced and energized family dynamic. When your child gets the sleep they need, the whole family benefits from the ripple effects that come with it.

Nurturing Rest, Building Success…

After the sleep plan is developed, families will receive continued support tailored to their unique needs. This ongoing guidance ensures that progress is monitored, adjustments are made as needed, and families feel confident in implementing effective strategies for lasting improvements

Frequently asked questions.

How do I get started?

To get started, simply book a free 30-minute consultation where we’ll discuss your child and family’s sleep concerns. The consultation is an opportunity for families to ask questions and for us to determine if services are appropriate.

Will working on sleep cause more challenging behaviors?

It’s understandable to worry that introducing new sleep routines might lead to increased challenging behaviors. However, our approach is designed to be gradual and supportive, minimizing distress for both children and caregivers. By focusing on foundational skills during the day-such as waiting, healthy separation, and smooth transitions-we set the stage for more successful and less stressful bedtime routines. This proactive strategy often leads to reduction in challenging behaviors over time, as children become more comfortable and secure in their sleep routines.

We’ve tried different sleep strategies before-how is this different?

Many families have experimented with various sleep strategies without lasting success, which can be discouraging. Our approach differs in that it emphasizes building specific daytime skills and routines that directly support better sleep at night. By teaching children skills such as self-regulation, independent sleep practices, consistent routines, and coping with transitions, we address the root causes of sleep disturbances. This comprehensive method not only improves sleep but also enhances overall child development and family well-being.

We have so many other priorities-why focus on sleep now?

Balancing multiple priorities is challenging, and sleep might not always seem urgent. However, adequate sleep is foundational to a child’s cognitive development, emotional regulation, and physical health. Improving sleep can lead to better behavior, enhanced learning, and a stronger immune system, making other daily challenges more manageable. By investing time in establishing healthy sleep habits now, you’re setting the stage for your child’s long-term well-being and creating a more harmonious family environment.

What type of services of you offer?

At Autism RestWise, we offer behavioral services focusing on sleep-related challenges for children with autism. Our approach uses evidence-based techniques from Applied Behavior Analysis to help children develop healthier sleep habits.

Where will services take place?

Services may be provided in your home or through online consultations, depending on what is most appropriate for your child’s needs. We’ll work with you to determine the best environment for services during the consultation and assessment sessions.

Who will be working with my family?

The program will be managed by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), who will create and oversee the individualized treatment plan. Families will work directly with the BCBA who will provide support and guidance on implementation of the treatment plan. This ensures that the quality of service does not change at any point while services are being provided.

Is a formal diagnosis of Autism necessary to access treatment?

No, a formal autism diagnosis is not required to begin services at Autism RestWise. The treatment we offer is personalized and can be tailored to meet the individual needs of anyone, whether or not they have a formal diagnosis of autism. We focus on providing solutions based on each person’s unique needs and goals, ensuring effective and meaningful support.

Contact us.

Email: info@autismrestwise.com
Call: (860) 406-4401
311 Ridgewood Drive
Mystic, CT 06355-2032

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