Frequently Asked Questions

The Center for Pediatric Sleep Management (CPSM) Sleep Consultant Certification Course is completely self-guided and self-paced. The online curriculum is presented via a combination of reading and video content.

As you move through the course you will answer multiple-choice quizzes and short answer questions. Your final assessment gives you the opportunity to create and present written sleep plans based on case studies. You’ll earn your certification upon successful completion of these assignments.

Please note that you will be given feedback and the opportunity to resubmit your final assignment if your written sleep plans fail to meet our criteria. We’re here to help, and we’re committed to your successful completion of the program.

In addition to the online content, six books from well known infant and toddler sleep experts are included in the price of enrollment. We find that when our students commit to reading these texts they gain a greater mastery of the subject. It is not a requirement that you read all books from cover to cover for passing the course, though they are recommended reading.

Please refer to the course syllabus for a detailed outline of the curriculum.

On average, CPSM students take three to six weeks to complete the training. However, because the course is self-guided and self-paced, there’s a wide range in the amount of time it takes for students to go through the course.

Our suggested timeline is four to six weeks of working through the material, setting aside slots of time throughout each week for learning. Brief, frequent study sessions have been found to lead to better learning than longer sessions of “binging” learning content. Committing to a weekly practice, but spacing out your sessions works with your brain, reduces information overload, and enhances learning.

Most importantly, you can complete the course on a schedule that works for you. There is no time limit, and your enrollment grants you lifetime access to the curriculum.

Although the course itself is self-guided, you’re definitely not on this journey alone! Your enrollment in the CPSM Sleep Consultant Certification Course includes access to our exclusive Facebook community for CPSM students, past and present. That is, you’ll not only be able to engage with other students who are working through the course, but you’ll also be able to interact with program graduates who already have their sleep consulting businesses underway!

Community members are highly active, engaged, and responsive to answering questions, sharing ideas, and supporting fellow members as they launch, grow, and eventually scale their businesses.

CPSM founder and director, Jayne Havens, actively engages in the community with regularity. She frequently answers your questions, hosts Live videos to provide continuing education, and makes sure the entire community feels supported. Free supplementary virtual training events are also routinely hosted for the CPSM community. These include presentations and interviews with Jayne Havens and expert guests.

The CPSM Facebook community provides ample opportunity to collaborate with others in the field, if you choose to do so. In fact, we encourage you to join the group and engage with other members, as research shows that collaboration and peer support enhance learning and growth.

No! Your one-time enrollment fee gives you lifetime access to both the online curriculum and the Facebook community. When the course curriculum is updated, all students and graduates are notified so that they can continue their education.

We’ve built our program on a model of lifetime certification and access because:

• We’re passionate about having the best-equipped sleep consultants in the industry.
• We’re committed to your success.
• We value our growing, supportive and collaborative community of CPSM students and Certified Sleep Consultants.

There are a variety of sleep training methods recommended by pediatricians and other sleep experts. These techniques range from very gentle, gradual, and hands-on (e.g., “pick-up, put down”) through extinction (which most people know as “cry it out"), and everything in between (e.g., Ferber’s graduated extinction method). These techniques can vary in effort and time frame required to achieve the goal, but they are all effective.

Because CPSM takes a client-led approach, and no one single sleep training method will fill every family’s needs and comfort level, our sleep consultant training offers a completely comprehensive curriculum, outlining sleep training techniques all along the continuum. We encourage our graduates to support their clients in a way that aligns with their parenting style, using techniques that feel safe and comfortable for them. When families are supported without judgment, they are much more likely to be successful. And once your clients achieve results, they share your name with friends and your business grows!

Our very own CPSM Success Method even includes our own “tweaks” to common techniques that we’ve found to be highly effective – and that parents won’t find in any books. You’ll be well-positioned to support your clients’ individual and specific needs.

The course syllabus includes more details about the specific sleep training techniques which are included in the program.

The short answer is, “No.” CPSM specifically teaches the virtual model of this business, which is both effective and convenient for families, as well as for you as the consultant. As a result, most of our graduates adopt the virtual model when they launch their businesses.  At the same time, sleep consultants are free to support their clients however they choose. If you enjoy supporting families in person and wish to do so, everything you learn in the program will set you up to support families in person if that is your preference.

As a business owner, you are free to set your own availability. Most of our graduates opt to limit support and communication to daytime hours. When our clients are set up for success, they are well positioned to implement the plan independently overnight. As sleep consultants our goal is to empower parents to help their children learn to sleep independently. Our clients need our guidance and support – not for us to be there to do the work for them.

It takes some effort, but it’s truly not that difficult, as there will never be a shortage of tired parents!  The key to building a service-based business is simply showing up – which can be online or in person – and talking about what you do. You can choose to promote your business online, at local events and businesses, or some combination of the two. The key is to do what works best for your personality and style.

Many of our graduates network with professionals in complementary fields (e.g., pediatricians, preschool directors, chiropractors, occupational therapists, family photographers) and refer business back and forth with those professionals.

Here's a link to a podcast episode specifically about how to find clients without social media, and another for those that would prefer to build their business using social media.

Within the course, you’ll not only learn how to best support your clients through establishing healthy sleep hygiene for their children, but you will also learn how to launch, grow, and eventually scale your own small business. We offer trainings in sales, marketing, business strategy, entrepreneurship and other topics related to business building.

Right here! One thing that makes our CPSM Success Method stand out from other sleep consultant certifications is that we go beyond teaching you how to make sleep recommendations to parents. We also teach you how to get your business off the ground from every angle, including marketing and promotion, pricing and packaging, legal matters, and more.

In addition, we include best practices for how to support families. For example, we provide best practices for communicating with families, managing expectations, and establishing boundaries around how and when you are available to support your clients.

The quick answer is most graduates recoup their investment within two to four months of earning their certification.

Depending upon how you set up and price your consulting packages, you would likely get a complete return on investment after supporting approximately five families. Most CPSM graduates offer a two week virtual consultation priced between $450 and $650 – which many exhausted parents find to be a small price to pay for a child that sleeps independently and through the night!

CPSM boasts graduates who work with 15-20 clients a month, at roughly $450-650 per two-week consultation. Because the CPSM Success Method is client-led and virtual, supporting this many families at once is very manageable and takes up less time than you may think.

Our most successful graduates who achieve these numbers typically treat their sleep consulting business as a full-time job. When they are not supporting their client families, they are creating blog content for their websites, creating written and video content for their social media channels, and engaging with people online and in person all for the purpose of advancing their businesses.

Becoming a sleep consultant can absolutely lead to a very respectable level of income. Whether you want to earn a full-time or a part-time income from your sleep consulting business is completely up to you, and your income will likely depend upon whether you treat it like a part-time or a full-time job.

Yes, please head over to our checkout cart to view the various payment schedules. Alternatively, you may enroll in the course by paying via PayPal Credit. PayPal credit allows for six months of interest-free financing if you qualify.

Here’s what our graduates tell us made the difference for them.

• One-time investment/lifetime certification – that can be recouped in as little as a few months.
• Online, self-paced and self-directed learning.
• Enrollment includes a starter library of books from world renowned sleep experts.
• A robust and comprehensive curriculum that covers the entire spectrum of sleep training techniques.
• A supportive, collaborative, and exclusive online community of fellow students/graduates and business owners, all committed to one another’s success!
• Direct access to Jayne Havens, the owner and founder of CPSM via the Facebook community.