D – Dream 

Founded by Richard Ferber, MD, Boston Children’s Sleep Center has been in operation since 1978 as one of the first comprehensive services in the world specializing in pediatric sleep medicine, with one of the busiest and most experienced pediatric sleep labs in the country.  

The Ferber method of “graduated extinction” – popularly known as “Ferberization”- is a sleep-training strategy which calls for allowing babies to cry for incrementally longer periods of time before comforting them. Its purpose is to help children learn to self-soothe and fall asleep on their own, or fall back to sleep independently if they wake up in the middle of the night. In 1985, Ferber published his ideas about sleep training in the best-selling book Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems (which he later updated in 2006). The Ferber method differs from the controversial “cry it out method” or extinction sleep training, which discourages caregivers from comforting the child at all in the night. 

The Sleep Center’s current director, Judith Owens, MD, MPH, remains committed to maintaining the highest level of excellence in caring for all types of sleep problems, with more than 4,000 patients visiting the center a year. 

“Children are very flexible. They can sleep well in many different settings and do terrifically.” – Richard Ferber to NPR, 2006