Before Sleep of Mind, I was a Family Sleep Institute certified pediatric sleep specialist, and I worked with hundreds of families. Again and again, parents shared how much anxiety they felt at night about whether their baby was breathing, and how often they were checking. Pediatricians, ER doctors and NICU nurses kept telling me the same thing: it’s about watching the baby, not the numbers. I wanted something more human and natural, because there’s nothing more natural than watching your baby breathe.

After three years of testing and R&D (and many failed attempts), we launched in June 2024. Our organic cotton sleep sacks and swaddles have a reflective Shimmer Effect embedded into the fabric that makes your baby’s breathing visible on a standard night-vision baby monitor.

What makes us different is what we left out. There are no apps, alarms, subscriptions or new devices to buy. It’s sleepwear your baby already needs, it works with the monitor you already own, and it’s GOTS certified organic cotton and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified. You’re already buying sleepwear. It might as well help you sleep too.

My first customers came from rooms I was already in. As a safe sleep expert, I speak at many events for new and expecting parents, like Prego Expo, so I was meeting parents face to face and hearing their worries firsthand. When they saw the product, it clicked right away.

Today, most of our new business comes from social media, especially Instagram. A short video of a baby breathing on a night-vision monitor explains the product better than any ad copy could. I also respond to comments on our posts myself, and I focus on education rather than selling. That builds trust with parents long before they buy.

The decision that shaped everything was my rule that our sleepwear had to work with every night-vision baby monitor, so no one would ever need to buy a new device to use it. That made R&D much longer and harder, but it’s why the product is so easy for parents to say yes to.

The lesson that taught me the most came from our failed attempts. Some reflective materials that looked promising on paper, like glass-bead reflective inks, simply didn’t work in real nurseries on real monitors. It taught me to test everything in real-life conditions before committing, and to never put something on the market just because it was faster or cheaper.

Parents have more baby tech available than ever, from biometric monitors to apps, and a lot of them are tired of it. The parents I serve want simple visual reassurance without alarms, false alerts or subscription fees. They’d rather understand their anxiety than be distracted from it, and they want to use technology to make life easier, not take it over. They’re also asking much harder questions about what’s in their baby’s clothes.

We’ve adapted by staying low tech on purpose, and by investing heavily in safety: organic cotton, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification, and lab testing for toxic chemicals like lead and phthalates, fire performance and durability. I believe companies should be 100% responsible for making sure their products are safe and compliant. Right now too much of that legwork falls on parents, and that isn’t fair. We’re raising the bar on infant sleepwear safety, and we lead with education in everything we share.

First, learn exactly how your product is made, down to the materials, inks and chemicals. When I got into this business I learned a ton about textile production and was honestly horrified, and that shaped every sourcing decision we made. Build safety testing and compliance in from day one instead of adding it later, and test in real-life conditions with the people you’re serving.

Ignore the pressure to add more tech, more features or flashier claims just to look innovative. Solve one real problem simply and well, listen closely to your customers, and let that guide what you build next.