Who is Dr. Richard Ferber?

If you have searched for help with your baby’s sleep, you have probably seen his name turned into a verb. Parents talk about “Ferberizing” a baby as if Ferber were a product. He is a person, a pediatrician with a long medical career, and it is fair to want to know who he is before you follow a method named after him.

Here is the short answer. Dr. Richard Ferber is an American pediatrician and sleep specialist. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1970, trained at Boston Children’s Hospital, and in 1978 co-founded the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders there, one of the first sleep centers anywhere devoted to children. He wrote Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, first published in 1985 and revised in 2006. He is now retired.

Dr. Richard Ferber’s training and early career

According to a 2022 profile in Harvard Medicine magazine, Dr. Ferber graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1970. He did his pediatric internship and residency at Boston Children’s Hospital, then a research fellowship there in psychiatry, where his work focused on how sleep and motor rhythms develop in infants. He also spent a year as a pediatrician on the hospital’s psychosomatic unit.

That mix matters for understanding his later work. He came to children’s sleep from general pediatrics and from research on how babies develop, and much of his clinical work involved talking with families about everyday sleep problems.

The sleep center he helped found

In 1978, Dr. Ferber co-founded the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital. The Harvard Medicine profile calls it the first full-service sleep center in the world devoted to treating sleep problems in children. The hospital’s own archive describes it as one of the first comprehensive services in the world specializing in pediatric sleep medicine. Sleep medicine was still a young field at the time.

He went on to direct the center for many years. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, now lists him as Director Emeritus of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders.

At the center, he saw children with a wide range of sleep problems, from trouble falling asleep to medical sleep disorders. The Harvard Medicine profile notes that his work helped show obstructive sleep apnea was much more common in children than had been thought, and that he described and named confusional arousals, a type of partial waking from deep sleep that can look like a nightmare but is different.

The same profile describes his approach with families. He often talked directly with children about their sleep and worked with parents on a shared plan. A recurring theme was teaching parents what normal sleep looks like, including that all children wake briefly during the night.

His books, including Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems

Dr. Ferber is best known to parents for one book. Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems was first published by Simon and Schuster in 1985. In 2006 it came out in a revised and expanded edition, which the publisher described as the first major revision in twenty years.

The book covers far more than the waiting approach parents associate with his name. The publisher’s description lists bedtime struggles, night wakings, naps, sleep schedule problems, co-sleeping, sleep terrors, sleepwalking, sleep apnea, narcolepsy and bed-wetting, among other topics. Our summary of what the book covers goes through it in more detail.

For doctors rather than parents, he co-edited a medical textbook with Dr. Meir Kryger, Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine in the Child, published by Saunders in 1995.

The Harvard Medicine profile also lists a long record of service in the field: he served on the American Board of Sleep Medicine and on the board of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and held editorial roles at sleep medicine journals, including Sleep and Sleep Medicine.

What the Ferber method is, and what it is often mistaken for

The method parents call “Ferber” comes from his book. A parent puts a baby to bed awake, leaves, and checks in briefly at set intervals that grow a little longer over the night and across the week. Researchers call this graduated extinction. You can read how it works night by night in the method, explained, and see the waits in the Ferber method chart.

It is often confused with cry it out, which means not going in until morning. Dr. Ferber has pushed back on how his work is described. In a 2006 NPR interview about the revised edition, he said it is a misunderstanding to think he uses one approach for every child who is not sleeping well. The same report says he reserves the waiting approach for families who want to change a specific sleep habit. He also said he hoped the word “Ferberize” would fade away.

The 2006 edition also changed his writing on co-sleeping. NPR reported that the revised book says children can sleep well in many different settings, where his earlier edition had asked parents to question their reasons for co-sleeping. One note for families of babies: the American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends room sharing without bed sharing, with your baby on their back in their own crib or bassinet. The AAP’s safe sleep guide has the details.

The comparison of sleep-training methods sets graduated extinction beside cry it out, the chair method and gentler options.

Where Dr. Ferber is today

The 2022 Harvard Medicine profile describes Dr. Ferber as retired. It says he remains a corresponding member of the Faculty of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and a founding member of the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine.

His book is still listed by Simon & Schuster in its 2006 revised edition, though copies of the 1985 original are still around. If you pick up an older copy, know that the 2006 revision updated the research and expanded several sections, including co-sleeping, sleep terrors and sleepwalking.

Is the Ferber app connected to Dr. Ferber?

No. The Ferber app is independent. It is inspired by the method Dr. Ferber describes in Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Dr. Richard Ferber or Boston Children’s Hospital. We name him because the method is his, and because parents deserve to know where an approach comes from. Our about page and FAQ say the same.

If you want to understand the method from the source, the book is the best place to start. If you are deciding whether this kind of sleep training suits your family at all, our page on whether the Ferber method is safe and the research summary are good next reads. Whatever you choose, sleep training is not recommended before about 4 months. Six months is a common starting point, and if your baby is younger than that, or has any health, feeding or growth concern, talk to your pediatrician first.

The Ferber app runs the book-style interval chart for you on iPhone: it times each wait and check-in and keeps a history of every night, with Night 1 free to try.

Common questions

Who is Dr. Ferber?

Dr. Richard Ferber is an American pediatrician and sleep specialist. He trained at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, co-founded the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children's in 1978, and wrote Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, first published in 1985 and revised in 2006. He is now retired.

Is Dr. Ferber still practicing?

No. A 2022 Harvard Medicine magazine profile describes Dr. Ferber as retired. It says he remains a corresponding member of the Faculty of Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital. His publisher lists him as Director Emeritus of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders.

Did Dr. Ferber invent cry it out?

No. The approach in his book has parents check on a crying child at set, gradually longer intervals, which researchers call graduated extinction. In a 2006 NPR interview, Dr. Ferber 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 specific sleep habit.

Is the Ferber app made by Dr. Ferber?

No. The Ferber app is independent. It is inspired by the method Dr. Ferber describes in his book, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Dr. Ferber or Boston Children's Hospital.

Sources

1. Harvard Medicine magazine: A pioneer in pediatric sleep medicine (Autumn 2022)
2. Boston Children's Hospital Archives: Richard Ferber and the Sleep Center
3. NPR: Dr. Ferber Revisits His Crying Baby Theory (2006)
4. Simon & Schuster: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, Revised Edition (2006)
5. Open Library: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, first edition (Simon and Schuster, 1985)
6. Open Library: Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine in the Child (Ferber and Kryger, eds., Saunders, 1995)