Sleep Expert

Dr. Marc Weissbluth, M.D.

Marc Weissbluth, M.D. is a pediatrician for more than thirty years who was also taught by one of the world’s foremost researchers in sleep, William C. Dement, while at Stanford University Medical School.

Besides practicing general pediatrics since 1973, Dr. Weissbluth is also a leading researcher on sleep and children.  He has conducted and published original research, and has been lecturing on crying and sleeping problems in children since 1981.  He founded the original Sleep Disorders Center at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital in 1985 and is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Northwestern University School of Medicine.

Dr. Weissbluth discovered that sleep is linked to temperament and that sleeping problems are related to infant colic.  His landmark seven-year study on the development and disappearance of naps highlighted the importance of daytime sleep.  In addition to his own research, he has written chapters on sleep problems in textbooks for pediatricians, has lectured extensively to parent groups, and has appeared on Oprah.  Dr. Weissbluth is the father of four sons, two grandsons, and, thankfully, one granddaughter — and they are all good sleepers.  Dr. Weissbluth has been married for thirty-eight years to Linda, and she has provided both inspiration and original ideas for this book.

“I have studied both healthy and disturbed sleep in thousands of children as founder of the original Sleep Disorders Center at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.  I have helped hundreds of families understand how their children’s sleep habits are directly connected to how they behave and how they will do in school.  Based on this research, my general pediatric practice spanning more than thirty years, and life with my own four sons and two grandchildren, I have discovered that there is hope for bleary-eyed parents…  I personally benefited from my sleep research: I used to think naps were a waste of time.  I wanted to spend time with my boys, and I had all those chores to do.  The result?  I was combative and irritable from accumulated sleeplessness.  Now I think my whole family benefits when I take the naps I need.

Prevention and treatment of unhealthy sleep habits in infants and young children are important because if they are uncorrected, they will persist.

– Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (1987), page xvii