The Secret of Lullabies
It's an image as old as time: a fussy baby is quickly lulled off to sleep as her loving mother lifts her voice to sing the soft, sweet notes of a familiar lullaby. Folk wisdom has held that lullabies help soothe little ones and send them to dreamland for generations, and now, modern science is catching up. And according to a new study done at the Great Ormund Street Hospital, it turns out that the effect of lullabies goes beyond just lulling an infant to sleep. At 5 Little Monkeys, our mission is to help your child experience the difference of healthy, restful sleep on our groundbreaking children's mattress. And if you're planning to sing your little one to sleep on our kids mattress, it turns out you're doing more than just tiring them out.
How Lullabies Go Beyond Sleep
In the study, researchers selected 37 patients under age 3, all of whom had problems with their heart or respiratory systems. The participants were then split into 3 groups for 10 minute sessions: one group was left alone, one group was read to, and the third group was sung lullabies. At the end of the 10 minute sessions, researchers measured the children's vital signs and found that the session involving music generated a significant decrease in both heart rate and pain level, suggesting that lullabies can even have a pain reducing effect.
According to Tim Griffiths, a neurologist at the Wellcome Trust, this likely has to do with the neurological structure of the brain. Our emotional response to music comes from an ancient part of the limbic system, and when infants hear a lullaby, it activates that limbic system. This results in a decrease of arousal overall, which in addition to bringing on sleep, helps to decrease pain and anxiety levels.
Order Your Children's Mattress Today
A soothing lullaby can be a parent's best friend for putting a child to bed, but in order to guarantee the healthy, restful sleep your child needs for healthy development, you need to make sure you're putting them to bed in a specially-designed kids mattress. At 5 Little Monkeys, we've spent years building a children's mattress from the ground up, designing it to give kids' growing bodies exactly what they need for deep, restful sleep. Want to experience the difference for yourself? Take our 100-Night Rest Test and try the Sleep System in your own home, 100% risk-free.