Ferber method

What It Means

The Ferber method is a sleep trainingSleep trainingTeaching a baby to fall asleep on their own, both at bedtime and after waking in the night, using a planned, consistent method. See more approach in which you put your baby down awake, leave, and return for short check-ins at set times if they cry, waiting a little longer before each visit. Its formal name is graduated extinction. Dr. Richard Ferber made it popular through his 1985 book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems," which he updated in 2006. The goal is a baby who learns to settle and fall asleep without help.

How Parents Say It

• "We Ferberized him over a long weekend."
• "Three minutes, then five, then ten."
• "Don't pick her up, just pat and go."

The Breakdown

The method by age

How it runs

1. Do your usual bedtime routineBedtime routineThe same short series of calm steps a child goes through each night before sleep, such as brushing teeth, reading a book and lights out at a set time. See more and lay your baby down drowsy but awakeDrowsy but awakeLaying a baby down in the crib when they're sleepy but still awake, so they practice falling asleep on their own. See more.
2. Leave the room. If crying starts, wait the first interval before going back.
3. Check in briefly: keep the lights low, pat and reassure, and don't pick your baby up.
4. Leave again while your baby is calm but still awake, and wait a little longer before the next check.
5. The next night, start with longer waits.

Cleveland Clinic gives 3, 5 and 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more minutes as an example for one night and notes that Dr. Ferber accepts families adjusting the times, with some using 10, 20 and 30 minutes.

When to talk to the doctor. Before starting, if you're unsure your baby is ready or still needs night feeds, and any time your baby seems unwell.

Where It Comes From

Dr. Richard Ferber published the approach in "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" in 1985, and his name became shorthand for it. He released an updated edition in 2006.

Good to Know

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine calls graduated extinction an effective and recommended treatment for bedtime problems and night wakings, and a 2016 trial in Pediatrics found it caused no adverse stress responses and no long-term effects on attachment or behavior. HealthyChildren.org says you can still attend to feeding, a dirty diaper or a sick baby. Every check-in happens with safe sleepSafe sleepThe AAP's rules for lowering the risk of SIDS and suffocation: baby on the back, alone, on a firm flat surface in their own sleep space, every sleep. See more in place: baby on the back, alone, on a firm, flat surface with only a fitted sheet.

Related Terms and Categories

• Sleep training

  Teaching a baby to fall asleep on their own, both at bedtime and after waking in the night, using a planned, consistent method.

• Cry it out

  A sleep training method, also called extinction, where a baby is put to bed awake and not comforted again until morning.

• Chair method

  A gradual sleep training method where a parent sits in a chair by the crib until the baby falls asleep, moving it farther away every few nights.

• Drowsy but awake

  Laying a baby down in the crib when they're sleepy but still awake, so they practice falling asleep on their own.

• Safe sleep

  The AAP's rules for lowering the risk of SIDS and suffocation: baby on the back, alone, on a firm flat surface in their own sleep space, every sleep.

• Gentle sleep training

  Everyday name for sleep training methods that keep a parent close or step back slowly, such as the chair method or pick up, put down.

Baby and toddler