Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: what the book covers

You have heard the method named a dozen times, and someone at daycare pickup has told you to “just read the Ferber book.” Before you order a 464-page paperback to read in the dark, it helps to know what is in it.

Here is the short answer. Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems is a book by Dr. Richard Ferber, a Boston pediatrician and sleep specialist. It was first published in 1985 and revised and expanded in 2006. It explains how children’s sleep works, why some children struggle to fall asleep alone or wake often at night, and how parents can change that, including the waiting-and-checking approach now called the Ferber method. It also covers many other sleep problems, from naps and schedules to sleep terrors and sleepwalking.

The two editions of Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems

There are two main editions, and they differ a lot in size.

• The original, 1985. Published by Simon and Schuster. Open Library’s record lists it at 251 pages.
• The revised and expanded edition, 2006. Published by Simon & Schuster, and listed at 464 pages. The publisher describes it as the first major revision since the book came out twenty years earlier, bringing in newer research and expanding several topics, including co-sleeping, sleep terrors and sleepwalking.

If you are buying or borrowing a copy now, the 2006 edition is the one to look for. An older copy will still explain the core ideas, but it misses the updates.

The book’s author is Dr. Richard Ferber, who co-founded the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital in 1978. Our profile of Dr. Ferber covers his career.

The big ideas behind the method

The book’s best-known chapters deal with a common problem: a healthy baby or young child who cannot fall asleep without a parent’s help, at bedtime and again in the night. A few ideas run through how it explains that problem.

Every child wakes in the night. Dr. Ferber has long taught parents that all children wake briefly during the night, as adults do. A 2022 Harvard Medicine profile describes this as a recurring point in his work with families. The waking itself is normal. The difficulty is whether a child can go back to sleep alone.

How a child falls asleep shapes how they wake. If a baby always falls asleep being rocked, fed or held, they may need that again after each brief waking. The Sleep Foundation’s summary of the Ferber method describes this as reliance on caregiver actions, such as patting, rocking or bottle feeding, to fall asleep. These links are usually called sleep associations.

Change the association, and the wakings often settle. The book’s practical answer is to help a child learn to fall asleep in the same conditions they will find when they wake: their own bed, with no parent doing the work.

Consistency does much of the teaching. In a 2006 NPR interview, Dr. Ferber described a child learning the new way to sleep by repetition, night after night, until the old way fades. Changing the plan from one night to the next tends to make it harder.

The progressive waiting approach

This is the part people mean when they say “the Ferber method.” In outline, a parent puts the child to bed awake, leaves, and if the child cries, waits a set number of minutes before going in for a short, calm check-in. The waits grow a little longer through the night and from one night to the next. Researchers call this graduated extinction.

The check-ins are brief. The Sleep Foundation describes them as patting or speaking softly, kept under one to two minutes, without picking the child up or feeding them. The point is reassurance that a parent is near, without bringing back the old way of falling asleep.

The book presents the waits as a chart. The Ferber app uses the same structure, which you can see laid out in the Ferber method chart:

Night	1st wait	2nd wait	3rd wait, then every wait
Night 1	3 min	5 min	10 min
Night 2	5 min	10 min	12 min
Night 3	10 min	12 min	15 min
Night 4	12 min	15 min	17 min
Night 5	15 min	17 min	20 min
Night 6	17 min	20 min	25 min
Night 7	20 min	25 min	30 min

Waits are in minutes. After the third wait, keep repeating the third value until your baby is asleep. If your baby wakes later in the night, start again from that night's first wait.

For a full walkthrough of how a night runs, see the method, explained.

Dr. Ferber has said his work is often misunderstood. In the same NPR report, he said it is a misunderstanding to think he uses one approach for every child who is not sleeping well, and NPR reported that he reserves the waiting approach for families who want to change a particular sleep habit.

Everything else the book covers

A large share of the book has nothing to do with crying at bedtime. According to the publisher’s description, it covers:

• Bedtime struggles and limit-setting
• Night wakings
• Naps
• Sleep schedule problems
• Co-sleeping
• Sleep terrors and sleepwalking
• Sleep apnea and narcolepsy
• Bed-wetting
• Daytime sleepiness and how poor sleep affects a child’s day

This is useful to know. A child who screams but seems not to know you are there, or a child who snores and stops breathing for moments in the night, has a different problem from a baby protesting a new bedtime. Some of these call for a doctor before any sleep plan.

What changed on co-sleeping in 2006

The 2006 revision expanded the book’s section on co-sleeping. NPR reported that the new edition says children can sleep well in many different settings, where the earlier edition had asked parents to question their reasons for co-sleeping.

For babies, current American Academy of Pediatrics guidance is clear: room sharing without bed sharing, with your baby on their back in their own crib or bassinet, on a firm, flat surface with nothing soft in it. The AAP’s safe sleep guide has the full list. The glossary entry on room sharing has the basics.

Should you read it before you start?

You do not have to. Many families start from a clear summary and the chart. The book is worth reading in three cases: you want the full reasoning, your child is older and the problem is more about limits than settling, or the problem looks like something other than trouble falling asleep alone.

Whatever you read, the age guidance is the same. Sleep training is not recommended before about 4 months, and 6 months is a common place to start. If your baby is under 6 months, or has any health, feeding or growth concern, talk to your pediatrician first.

The book is published independently of us. The Ferber app is inspired by the method it describes and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Dr. Ferber or Boston Children’s Hospital. On iPhone, the app runs the 7-night interval chart, alerts you at each check-in and keeps a history of each night, and Night 1 is free.

Common questions

What is the Ferber method book called?

The book is Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber. It was first published by Simon and Schuster in 1985, and a revised and expanded edition came out in 2006.

Which edition of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems should I read?

The 2006 revised and expanded edition is the current one. Its publisher describes it as the first major revision in twenty years, with updated research and expanded sections on topics including co-sleeping, sleep terrors and sleepwalking. The 1985 original is much shorter.

Is the whole book about letting babies cry?

No. The waiting approach parents call the Ferber method is one part of the book. The publisher's description lists many other topics, including naps, sleep schedules, co-sleeping, sleep terrors, sleepwalking, sleep apnea, narcolepsy and bed-wetting.

Do I need to read the book to do the Ferber method?

Not necessarily. Many parents start from a clear summary of the method and the interval chart. The book is worth reading if you want the reasoning in full, or if your child's sleep problem is something other than trouble falling asleep alone.

Sources

1. Simon & Schuster: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, Revised Edition (2006)
2. Open Library: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, revised and expanded edition (2006)
3. Open Library: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, first edition (Simon and Schuster, 1985)
4. NPR: Dr. Ferber Revisits His Crying Baby Theory (2006)
5. Harvard Medicine magazine: A pioneer in pediatric sleep medicine (Autumn 2022)
6. Sleep Foundation: The Ferber Method