Too often families are led to believe that sleep training is a necessary part of the parenting journey. It can be a really contentious issue in parenting groups, families, and even between partners.

Often referred to as Ferberization or "crying it out", sleep training is a behavioural method used to help children learn to sleep independently. ⁠Behind the term ferberize, Richard Ferber is best known for his 1985 book Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems. His approach focuses on having a child practice falling asleep on their own and in some cases that may require leaving them to cry. Historically, the cry it out (CIO) method was used as a quick way to get infants or children falling asleep independently and consequently sleeping longer stretches. This became especially important for parents who had to go back to work shortly after a baby was born, in some cases as early as 9 weeks. With longer parental leaves and more parents working from home, I think now is a good time to examine this idea that in order to get more sleep we have to sleep train.