The science-backed nap strategy for sleepless nights!
PLUS two more studies about sleep with practical (science-backed) tools to help you and your little one's wellbeing thrive...
The best way to get your baby to stop crying and back to sleep…
Researchers who have been studying how best to soothe a crying baby have taken inspiration from something called the ‘transport response’ used by other animals such as mice, monkeys and dogs. (Aside from checking that the baby doesn’t need feeding or changing), they observed that when the babies were picked up and carried, their bodies became relaxed and their heart rates slowed…
So, the researchers studied a group of infants and measured their responses while 1. being held by their walking mothers, 2. held by their sitting mothers, 3. lying in a still crib, or 4. lying in a rocking cot. The results found that when the crying infants were carried by their mother while she walked, the baby calmed down and their heart rates slowed within 30 seconds.
Babies also calmed down when they were placed in a rocking cot, but not when the mother simply held their baby while sitting down, nor when they placed the baby in a still crib. So it seems that movement is key to calming a crying baby, as it activates their transport response. Interestingly, the effect was best when the mother carried and walked with their baby for five minutes, as all babies stopped crying, and almost half of them fell asleep.
However, what then? We’ve all been there - baby asleep and we think great, “I’ll just pop them back in the cot so we can all get to sleep”, when… BAM! They’re awake again! The researchers found that more than one-third of the babies were alert again within 20 seconds of the mother attempting to place them back in the cot - the babies produced physiological responses, including heart rate changes, that can wake them up the moment their bodies are separated from their mother’s. But researchers did find that if the mother allowed their baby to sleep in their arms for a longer time before putting them down there was less chance of them waking.
Sleep is the secret sauce…
A new study has found evidence that supports the importance of sleep on children’s behaviour and ability to deal with stressful environments. The researchers found that when children take more than 30 minutes to get to sleep, or they get less than their recommended amount of sleep, it can lead to impulsive behaviours later on. By the same token, when children got enough sleep, and got off to sleep easily, impulsive behaviours were observed less in the study’s results.
The science-backed nap strategy for sleep deprivation
Up all night with your little one? A new study has found what might be the perfect nap strategy to help you survive those ‘all nighters’. You may think that when you are up all night, getting a long two hour nap during the day while someone else looks after the baby, or during one of the baby’s longer day naps, would be the best thing to do to help you catch up on sleep. But that’s not the case. This is the strategy to follow after being up all night…