Every mom has paced the floors at night praying for a magic formula to get their crying baby to sleep.
And now it seems those prayers might just have been answered!
Japanese researchers have discovered a specific formula that could help parents get a crying infant to sleep.
The perfect formula
In a recent study published in the journal Current Biology, scientists found that if you carry a crying infant for five minutes, then sits with the baby for eight minutes, you'll soothe the child and possibly get them to sleep.
Researchers used baby EKG machines and video cameras to compare changes in an infant’s heart rate and behavior when they’re carried, held by a sitting parent and pushed in a stroller — things we all do to soothe a crying baby.
They found that if a child is carried for five minutes, their heart rate will decrease. But if you stop walking with the child in your arms, or if you turn abruptly, the child’s heart rate would increase.
Walk, sit method
And so it was concluded that walking with a crying infant in your arms for five minutes (without any sudden turns), then holding them while sitting still for eight minutes, is the perfect formula to help a crying baby go to sleep.
But beware: the study also found that the five-minute walk, eight-minute sit routine only works to promote sleep if the baby is crying.
The same method didn't have a similar effect when babies were already calm.
Sleep deprivation
It was recently revealed that many parents won't get a decent night's sleep for up to six years after their child is born.
A 2016 study published in the Journal of Research in Medical Science found a link between sleep deprivation and postpartum depression in new parents.