My daughter was a terrible sleeper. I was a walking zombie. By the time she was 4 months old, I was desperate. I put my complete faith in this book and said that I would follow it exactly. Too tired to read, I was able to use the summaries to get the information that I needed.

I followed Dr. Weisbluth's recommendations to the letter and Sarah soon became a model sleeper. The endless rocking or bottles to help her fall asleep were over and I could lay her down in her crib and she could fall asleep on her own and STAY ASLEEP ALL NIGHT! We all woke refreshed and happy!

I now buy this book for all of my friends who are expecting babies and even those who already have infants and toddlers. I never let my copy out of my house as it is a terrific reference when sleep patterns get disturbed due to time changes or illness.

You can genuinely put your faith in this book. It has worked for our family and everyone else I know who has followed it.

I first read this book when our daughter was about 5 months old and was not napping well nor sleeping past 5:30 am. I wish I had read it before she was born, when I had more time and could have learned about the strategies Dr. Weissbluth suggests for a baby's first three months, when our daughter was extremely colicky. I think our daughter was somewhat sleep deprived during her first 5 or 6 months and we definitely had to work hard to "train" her to sleep. She is now one year and has been taking two good naps on most days and wakes up anywhere from 6:30 to 8:00 am.

We did not follow every single strategy to the letter, but I felt the pros of this book were:

* Lots of information about how babies sleep, including their sleep cycles and how to get them to sleep during their natural, biological sleep times.

* I had no clue what kind of schedule my daughter should have been on since her sleep times were all over the map. The book suggests sleep schedules based on age that have mostly worked well for us.

* It stesses the importance of an early bed time (6:00 to 8:00 PM for most babies) which I believe helps my daughter take better naps during the day and sleep later in the morning, even though with our busy work schedules we don't always make that precise deadline.

* It suggests methods of altering the sleep schedule to accommodate special occasions such as holidays and travel and ways to get the baby back on track afterwards. I have found that our daughter does well when she goes off her schedule and I attribute that to our sticking to the general schedule most of the time.

* Gives alternatives if you don't want to let your baby "cry it out."

I can't think of too many "cons" about the book other than I think some of his theories about what can happen to chronically sleep deprived babies are unduly alarming. Don't let that scare you away from this book. I think you will find some helpful information here, even if you don't agree with everything Dr. Weissbluth has to say.

I believe many of the other reviewers were being overly critical and taking things out of context from this book. THe author was not suggesting earplugs, putting a pillow over your head, and tying a ribbon between your ankles...he was suggesting trying what worked for you and saying what some of his patients had found useful for them.

The BEST part of this book is that it is a carefully presented, fully supported, medical presentation of how vital good sleep habits are to infants and toddlers. It is utterly insightful when it comes to how we, as parents, often sabotage good sleeping habits in favor of convenience, doing errands, and giving both parents plenty of time to play with our kids. The central idea of the book, that "sleep begets sleep" was incredibly accurate. The importance of day time naps and their influence on the length and consistency of nighttime sleep was really true when it came to my son. He does not restrict his suggestions to CIO methods, and he does not tell you what you MUST do. He suggests alternatives to fit your parenting style, and simply informs you on how much sleep your child really needs.

The simple fact of putting infants to bed earlier as a way to get them to sleep longer (instead of the idea that we keep them up later to sleep longer) worked exactly as he described.

The more tired your kids are, the less sleep they will get! I found this book incredibly helpful and fundamental to helping me understand the biological basis of sleep in infants. With my next child I will begin right away so I will never have the sleep problems I caused with my son! I wish they would have told me about this book from day one!

I read the book cover to cover desperate for a solution to my baby's sleep issues. While the book states that babies need more sleep and made me realize that I wasn't putting my child down for enough naps, it often conatins confusing and contradicting advice. I am told on one page to NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY and the very next page advises me to wake my baby if I think he is sleeping too long. After trying to figure out some semblance of advice for us to get our baby to bed by the 6:30 p.m. presrcibed time, I gave up on his book and just focused on instituting a better schedule for my baby.

I was given this book by a friend who said, "here, you can have this, but it doesn't work!". So I shelved it and forgot about it. I used the Sears method with my son, and for the first year, him sleeping with us was fine. But when I didn't want him in our bed anymore, I didn't know what to do, since I hadn't read ANY other sleep books.

I used the method outlined in this book for keeping a toodler in bed and it was amusingly tough but very effective. We have no significant sleep issues with him (occasional night waking, but he settles down easily).

I am using this book from day one with our daughter and I am amazed at how on target the author is for how the infant's sleep patterns change.

He is sensative to parents desire to not let their children cry it out and offers suggestions for modifying his plan to fit your parenting style.

I also found it thorough; he deals with a lot of issues surrounding sleep.

I'm not sure why it didn't work for my friend. I think you have to just reach a certain level of resolve, and to know your child and what their different cries mean. Also, how willing are you to set aside your own needs, and for how long.