Researchers: This quick & easy method gets a crying baby to sleep in under 13 minutes

It just requires two simple steps.

Oct. 4, 2022

Researchers: This quick & easy method gets a crying baby to sleep in under 13 minutes

One of the earliest challenges any parent faces is putting their crying baby to sleep.

From music to gentle jigs, sometimes nothing works. This is when it's best to turn to science.

According to researchers, you only need two quick and easy steps to put a wailing baby to deep sleep in under 13 minutes.

Let science show you the correct way to put a crying baby to sleep.

Step 1: Carry the baby for about five minutes.

Step 2: Sit with the baby for five to eight minutes.

That's it. It's that easy. You can gently place the baby back in the crib once you've successfully lulled the infant to sleep. This method apparently works with caregivers who are familiar with the baby too.

The team of researchers, who published their findings in Current Biology, revealed that carrying a baby decreases their heart rate and calms them.

So what's the science behind the method?

By placing heart rate monitors on 21 crying babies, the researchers were able to monitor their moods via video cameras as their mothers carried them around a room. The infants researched ranged from newborns to seven-months-old.

“We tested the physiology behind these things that tend to be kind of common knowledge, though it’s not really well understood why they work,” developmental psychologist at the University of Trento in Italy, Gianluca Esposito said.

The heart rates of babies, according to Esposito, depends heavily on the movement of the parent. The researchers learned that when the mother turns quickly while walking or when trying to put a baby down, their heart rate quickens.

Based on observations, sitting is a perfect transition between walking to bed. Their heart rate slows down and remains low as mothers gently place them back in their crib. Interestingly, the babies woke up when their mothers failed to meet the required five minutes of sitting time.

That said, there's still a lot of research needed to understand the relationship between babies and their mothers. The method above also doesn't guarantee the fact that you'll experience peaceful nights of sleep.