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Three Sleep Training Methods Compared — Reading the RCTs on Ferber, Cry It Out, and Camping Out

By Leon MoriguchiPublished May 15, 2026Updated May 18, 20266 min read日本語版あり
Audience
Parents of children aged 0–3, especially those struggling with sleep and researching methods

TL;DR

  • ·Graduated extinction (Ferber), unmodified extinction ("cry it out"), and Camping Out all have evidence as behavioral sleep interventions; a 2006 review of 52 studies found 94% reported them effective, with parents' mood improving too, and a five-year follow-up of a behavioral sleep program found no harm to children's emotions, behavior, or the parent–child relationship
  • ·Consistency tends to matter more than method choice — inconsistent follow-through is described as the biggest obstacle to extinction-based methods
  • ·A short, consistent bedtime routine (bath, massage, quiet cuddling) is worth trying first: in one RCT, two weeks of it alone cut night wakings by roughly 40% in infants and about half in toddlers

Contents

  1. Lead
  2. How Common Is Infant Sleep Disruption?
  3. Mindell 2006 Review — The Overall Picture
  4. Comparing Three Approaches
  5. Graduated Extinction (the Ferber Method)
  6. Unmodified Extinction ("Cry It Out")
  7. Camping Out (Chair Method)
  8. "Does Letting Them Cry Harm Attachment?" — Long-Term Follow-Up
  9. The Bedtime Routine as a First Step
  10. Practical Takeaways
  11. Summary
  12. References

Lead

Sleep training attracts strong opinions. There is real anxiety on one side — "it's cruel to let them cry," "what about attachment?" — and real exhaustion on the other. Both are honest responses to the situation.

This article sets aside the emotional framing for a moment and looks at the numbers from RCTs and a major evidence review. The goal is less to answer "which method is right?" and more to clarify what each approach is actually doing, and under what conditions each tends to work.

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In the memori app

The memori app is built so you can check these patterns against your records instead of your memory.

  • Bedtime sessions: time-to-sleep accumulates separately for each method you try — rocking, lying down beside them, white noise.
  • A per-night tally of how many feeds and wakings there were.
  • White noise and ambient sound, with a caution when the volume climbs too high.
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