About Heidi Holvoet, PhD

"Go to Heidi for to-the-point kind advice and truly no-tears techniques that actually work"
(more parent testimonials )

Hi! I'm Heidi, very happy to be your baby & toddler sleep consultant, certified breastfeeding counselor, award-winning author and founder of this site. Since 2007, I've been helping 1000s of babies and their parents worldwide sleep well.

My pledge to you is simple and very focused: to help your baby, and you, sleep better, sleep more and develop lifelong healthy sleeping skills. And we achieve that in the most gentle (no tears), respectful (no judgments of parenting styles or habits here, ever!) and effective (no fluff, but pure practical advice) way.

I'm also the super proud and fun-loving mother of two amazing children, have the best husband ever, and hold a PhD in science.

This page is a quick about me and about how I came to writing these pages. Read my story for a more detailed version of my journey on the bumpy sleep parenting road .

Yes, it's just me and my passion for helping your baby sleep well, not some company selling baby products.

I'm a fellow mother, researched and trained into sleep consultant and passionate about helping you with the right baby sleep advice.

I enjoy talking and advising about sleep and babies more than about myself, so let me just share the 'word cloud' of my latest brand survey: made with the answers to the question "Which human personality traits do you associate with Heidi and baby-sleep-advice.com?"

About me and sleep

Long before I started researching the science of sleep, for as long as I can remember, I've had a fascination for sleep .

As a little girl of course I was curious about dreams. How come I had a dream about that, does it mean something?

Then later why do we dream at all? Then how do we sleep? Can I observe my own sleep patterns? Why do we sleep? ...

I was so intrigued by this thing called sleep , even more when I learned that not all is known and understood.

Reading along in books and articles, I discovered many things that a re known.

But I also found out that simple questions like why do we sleep? don't have a definitive answer.

About me and babies

Growing up I studied physics, but always kept my interest in sleep. My PhD degree allowed me to keep current with sleep research from a scientific point of view.

Then I had kids. And two super lovely ones too ... That's me in the picture hiding behind my baby girl sleeping ...

We started out as so many new parents I guess: not knowing what to expect and often unsure of how to do things right. But with an immense love for this little wonder called baby .

From the first night as a parent, you start valuing sleep quite a bit more than you used to.

And you realize how sleep, baby's and yours, can rule your life ...

It would be nice to be able to say so, but no, my knowledge about sleep has not magically turned my babies into ideal sleepers.

But along the way I did use a lot of that theory , and combined it with valuable ideas from my own mom, friend-moms and my instincts.

I always noted things down in little notebooks and diaries and that has became my little box of sleep tips & techniques . I would often turn to it when a friend had a sleeping issue with their babies too and have been developing and expanding my approach ever since, adding to and updating my little box all the time as I meet and help more and more families.

Other moms' reactions made me realize that these little notes I took and the advice I gave, actually helped others too.

And that's how this website was born, and how I developed the sleep programs that have been helping thousands of families worldwide, sleep ever since.

If you want to find out how these programs can help you and your baby get more sleep , discover all sleep programs here .

Sending lots of happy sleep vibes!

With love and dedication,

Heidi

Heidi Holvoet, PhD