Japanese researchers behind a study published this week in the journal Current Biology conducted a series of experiments to determine if there’s a method to help a crying newborn to sleep.
And it only takes 13 minutes!
The team discovered that walking around for five minutes while carrying the infant, making sure to minimise abrupt movements, followed by around eight minutes of sitting while holding the baby before finally laying them down in the cot for sleep, is the magic formula all parents need to know.
Scientists used baby heart monitors and video recordings to compare changes in infant heart rate and behavior as a set of 21 mothers acted out activities commonly used to calm crying newborns.
The scenarios included walking and carrying the baby, pushing the baby in a stroller, holding the baby while sitting and putting the baby directory into a crib or cot. Data was collected from babies that were asleep, alert and calm or crying and scored accordingly.
Among the babies studied, all had stopped crying after a five-minute walk and had reduced heart rates, while about half fell asleep. Just sitting and holding a crying baby did not appear to work. Monitors showed the baby’s heart rate increased and crying persisted.
“Walking for five minutes promoted sleep, but only for crying infants. Surprisingly, this effect was absent when babies were already calm beforehand,” Kumi Kuroda, a researcher with the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan who developed the study, said.
Infants in the study often woke up if they were put down to sleep in their cribs before getting about eight minutes of sleep. That’s why researchers suggest sitting with a sleeping baby for five to eight minutes after walking around so they go into a deeper sleep.