When Cyrielle Dailly’s second son refused to sleep, she did what any exhausted mother would do: desperately searched for answers. What she found, however, was something that would change not only her own life, but the lives of thousands of parents struggling with their baby’s sleep.

Dailly is now a sleep specialist for babies and children aged zero to five, and she was in Monaco Tuesday for a lunch event at Little Wonders, the principality’s new space dedicated to early childhood.

Speaking to Monaco Life, she explained the method that has become her life’s work, and why so many parents are still struggling in the dark.

“Usually, they are desperate because they tried everything,” she said of the parents who come to her. “The baby is not sleeping well at night, or has difficulties falling asleep, or wakes up at five, or is doing micro-naps all day long. They tried to find solutions, they’ve tried everything.”

Her own research led her across the Antantic, where she discovered the Family Sleep Institute in the United States and trained in its science-based approach. The biggest insight is quite surprising: the less a baby sleeps, the less they will sleep.

“The number one mistake is to think that they are not tired,” she said. “You think a baby is not tired because they don’t sleep, but usually it’s the opposite.” This state of overtiredness, driven by a build-up of the stress hormone cortisol, can pull families into a cycle that only gets harder to escape.”It’s not the parents’ fault. It’s because you don’t know the science of sleep.”

In fact, Dailly, after four years of working in this field, is quite shocked at how little formal guidance parents are given. “In France and Europe, I think we are so much in the idea that a child sleeps or doesn’t sleep, and then it passes,” she said. Paediatricians, she notes, are generally trained in sleep pathologies like sleepwalking, rather than the everyday challenge of a baby who simply will not settle.

How her method works

Her method, which she has built into a service called Dodo les Petits, focuses on working with a child’s natural circadian rhythm rather than against it by paying close attention to sleep windows, bedtime timing and the environment.

The best part? Results come quickly. “After three days you have big changes, big improvements, and then you keep going and it keeps getting better.” Parents who have worked with her, she says, often have one consistent reaction: “Why didn’t I ask you before?”

How much it costs

The approach is available at several price points designed to be accessible to as many families as possible. An entry point is a downloadable sleep guide at just €25. From there, video programme packages offer more detailed, structured guidance, with the most popular pack priced at around €109.

For parents who want direct support, remote accompaniment over several days runs to approximately €600, while in-person sessions are available for families in the region at a higher rate. Additionally, an English-language version of her programmes, called Baby Dream Secrets, launched around a month ago.

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Main photo credit: Monaco Life