Rocking all night long the key to sleeping like a baby

Scientists have found that adults as well as babies benefit from being rocked to sleep.

Scientists hope the work will open new avenues of non-drug treatment for people with insomnia.

It is not only babies who benefit from being rocked to sleep: scientists have found that being gently swayed while you slumber boosts memory in adults.

Being rocked softly and continuously through the night also appeared to induce a deeper sleep, according to research. The new study explored the effects of rocking on sleep and brainwaves throughout the night.

Researchers recruited 18 healthy young adults for sleep monitoring. They slept under observation for three nights. The first was intended to get them used to sleeping in a new place. On one of the other nights they slept on a bed that moved gently side to side with a pendulum-like motion, by about 10cm every four seconds. On the other night they slept on an identical bed that did not move.

The scientists found that the participants fell asleep faster when they were rocked. Once asleep, they also spent more time in deep, non-rapid eye movement sleep, slept more deeply and woke less.

Laurence Bayer of the University of Geneva co-authored the study, which was published in the journal Cell. He said: “They had longer periods of deep sleep and fewer microwakes, a factor frequently associated with poor sleep quality. Our volunteers — even if they were good sleepers — fell asleep more rapidly when rocked and had longer periods of deeper sleep associated with fewer arousals during the night. We thus show that rocking is good for sleep.”

Before you dust down your hammock, however, you will need something a little more hi-tech to gain any benefits. One US company makes “rocking beds” with an electric device oscillating from side to side. The king-size version costs $4800.

The scientists hope the work will open new avenues of non-drug treatment for people with insomnia, and for older people who suffer from decreased deep sleep and memory impairments.

To assess the effects on memory, the volunteers were asked to learn pairs of words. The researchers measured their accuracy in recalling the paired words in an evening session and then the next morning. People did better on the morning test after they had been rocked. Rocking was also found to be linked to brainwaves associated with helping memory. The same scientists had shown previously rocking during a 45-minute nap helped adults fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.

The Times