question: Why does rocking a baby help it sleep?
comment: Newborn babies are used to being suspended in amniotic fluid and they get used to the motions of the mom when she goes to sleep usually gentle rocking from tossing and turning. Babies associate that gentle motion with sleeping.
passages: Indian people believe that the rocking motion soothes and relaxes the child and puts them to sleep quickly by replicating the comfort and security of the womb. Indian mothers claim that using a ghodiyu for their child can relieve baby colic symptoms due to the rocking motion which they believe relaxes the baby.
   Fetuses aged 14 to 18 weeks show a pronounced circadian rhythm in their activity level, which can be detected both by fetal electrocardiogram and by measuring locomotor activity. Active and quiet periods for the fetus do not correspond to those of the mother; fetuses are most active from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. During the last four to six weeks before birth, most of the fetus's kicking and jabbing movements occur while it is sleeping lightly.
  
  Section::::Monitoring fetal movement.
   Another method is Behavioral Infant Sleep Intervention to effectively reduce infant sleep problems and associated maternal depression in the short- to medium-terms. This method randomized tried and found effective though, despite their effectiveness, theoretical concerns persist about long-term harm on children’s emotional development, stress regulation, mental health, and the child-parent relationship . This method proves to be causing no long-lasting harms or benefits to child, child-parent, or maternal outcomes. Parents and health professionals can feel comfortable about using these techniques to reduce the population burden of infant sleep problems and maternal depression.
  
  Section::::Other influences on infant sleep.
   "A General Theory of Love" is scarcely more sympathetic to Dr. Benjamin Spock and his "monumentally influential volume" "Baby and Child Care", especially given Spock's role in promoting the movement against co-sleeping, or allowing infants to sleep in the same bed as their parents. Lewis, Amini and Lannon cite the research of sleep scientist James McKenna, which seems to suggest that the limbic regulation between sleeping parents and infants is essential to the neurological development of the latter and a major factor in preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). "The temporal unfolding of particular sleep stages and awake periods of the mother and infant become entwined...on a minute to minute basis, throughout the night, much sensory communication is occurring between them."
   Many parents try to understand, once the baby is asleep, how to keep them sleeping through the night. It is thought that it is important to have structure in the way a child is put to sleep so that he or she can establish good sleeping patterns. Dr Sylvia Bell of Johns Hopkins University reported: by the end of the first year individual differences in crying reflect the history of maternal responsiveness rather than constitutional differences in infant irritability. She also notes: consistency and promptness of maternal response is associated with decline in frequency and duration of infant crying. The sleep position is also important to prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
   Baby soothing techniques include bouncing, jiggling, rocking baby while sitting in a rocking chair, doing knee bends while holding them, doing comfort feeding, providing them with a pacifier, using a white noise machine or app, swaddling them, skin-to-skin contact, using a bouncer or swing to mechanically rock them, and more. Some parents reject the use of most or all baby soothing techniques under the idea that you should teach a baby to self-soothe. Other parents think having devices such as white noise machines and swings are crucial because they allow the parents' to take breaks and get things done other than just holding their baby.
   Both before and during labor, trace alternant patterns can be observed in the fetal EEG. The trace alternant pattern has been correlated with quiet sleep in newborn babies. During active REM sleep, EEG recordings from the fetus mostly show low voltage fast activity. During quiet non-REM sleep, EEG recordings from the fetus mostly show high voltage slow activity. Amazingly, the fetus spends most of the time of his labor and delivery asleep.
   A 2008 report explored the relationship between ad hoc parental behaviors similar to traditional co-sleeping methodology, though the study's subjects typically utilized cribs and other paraphernalia counter to co-sleeping models. While babies who had been exposed to behaviors reminiscent of co-sleeping had significant problems with sleep later in life, the study concluded that the parental behaviors were a reaction to already-present sleep difficulties. Most relationships between parental behavior and sleeping trouble were not statistically significant when controlled for those preexisting conditions. Further, typical co-sleeping parental behavior, like maternal presence at onset of sleep, were found to be protective factors against sleep problems.
   Though sleep is a primarily biological process, it can be treated as a behavior. This means that it can be altered and managed through practice and can be learned by the child. Healthy sleep habits can be established during the first four months to lay a foundation for healthy sleep. These habits typically include sleeping in a crib (instead of a car seat, stroller, or swing), being put down to sleep drowsy but awake, and avoiding negative sleep associations, such as nursing to sleep or using a pacifier to fall asleep, which may be hard to break in the future.
   The sleep advice given by "Baby Wise" is similar to Richard Ferber's advice given in his popular book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems". The Ferber method of getting a baby to sleep similarly includes putting the baby to bed when awake The baby is expected to learn how to fall asleep alone. Both methods warn the parents against using aids such as a pacifier to ease the baby into sleep, and both methods describe putting the infant to sleep without rocking, cuddling or nursing applied for the sole purpose of putting child to sleep. "Crying it out" is expected from the infant during the early training periods, until about eight weeks of age.
   The word rocking chair comes from the verb "to rock". The first known use of the term "rocking chair" was in 1766.
  
  Section::::Purpose.
  
  Rocking chairs are often seen as evocative of parenting, as the gentle rocking motion can soothe infants.
  
  Many adults find rocking chairs soothing because of the gentle motion. Gentle rocking motion has been shown to provide faster onset of sleep than remaining stationary, mimicking the process of a parent rocking a child to sleep.
   "Whatever the cause, it is definitely the case that, when faced with a kid who refuses to go to sleep, we get annoyed, like all parents before us, but, rather than just abandoning the child to the dark and telling it that it can go to sleep or stay awake as it likes but it is staying in the bed until morning (remember Proust at the opening of "Swann’s Way"?), we sit there with it, reading to it and singing to it and distracting it with swirling night lights until it decides it feels like going to sleep, all the while thinking to ourselves, Go the fuck to sleep, kid."
   Stress hormones are lower in mothers and babies who co-sleep, specifically the balance of the stress hormone cortisol, the control of which is essential for a baby's healthy growth. In studies with animals, infants who stayed close to their mothers had higher levels of growth hormones and enzymes necessary for brain and heart growth. Also, the physiology of co-sleeping babies is more stable, including more stable temperatures, more regular heart rhythms, and fewer long pauses in breathing than babies who sleep alone.
   Parental soothing (by rocking, holding etc) in infancy lays the foundations of the capacity to self-calm. Thereafter transitional objects can help maintain calmness, while pets as self-objects also promote soothing and calm.
  
  Section::::Cultivating calmness.
   . The parents in this book practice the psychological art of paradoxical intention, realizing that instead of forcing the little girl to go to sleep they let her naturally relax in bed knowing that sleep will come.
  
  Section::::Plot.
   The Rocking Carol
  
  The Rocking Carol, also known as "Little Jesus, Sweetly Sleep" and "Rocking", is an English Christmas carol by Percy Dearmer. It was translated from Czech in 1928 and is performed as a lullaby to the baby Jesus.
  
  Section::::History.
   Section::::Good sleep conditions.
   Section::::Controversies in sleep training.
   During the first year of life, infants spend most of their time in the sleeping state. Assessment of sleep during infancy presents an opportunity to study the impact of sleep on the maturation of the central nervous system (CNS), overall functioning, and future cognitive, psychomotor, and temperament development. Sleep is essential to human life and involves both physiologic and behavioral processes. Sleep is now understood as not simply a resting state, but a state that involves intense brain activity. The first year of life is a time of substantial change in the development of both the human brain and sleep. However a infant goes through several sleep regression starting at 1 week, and can occur weekly of fortnightly, till 8 years of age.
   Studies have shown that preterm infants, full-term infants, and older infants have greater time periods of quiet sleep and also decreased time awake when they are positioned to sleep on their stomachs. In both human infants and rats, arousal thresholds have been shown to be at higher levels in the electroencephalography (EEG) during slow-wave sleep.
   In 1992, the first National Infant Sleep Position (NISP) Household Survey was conducted to determine the usual position in which U.S. mothers placed their babies to sleep: lateral (side), prone (stomach), supine (back), other, or no usual position. According to the 1992 NISP survey, 13.0% of U.S. infants were positioned in the supine position for sleep. According to the 2006 NISP survey 75.7% of infants were positioned in the supine position to sleep.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Tummy time
  
  BULLET::::- Plagiocephaly
  
  BULLET::::- United States Department of Health and Human Services
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- Safe Sleep For Your Baby
   Some toys are specifically intended for an infant bed. Mobiles are musical toys to soothe the baby to sleep, but should be removed before the child can stand (8 to 12 months of age). Mirrors are to keep the children entertained while awake in the bed.
  
  With decreasing technology prices and increasing house sizes, it has become increasingly common to have a baby monitor nearby so as to alert the caretaker when the child awakens. Without either professional endorsement or scientific evidence that they prevent SIDS, apnea monitors are available to alert the caregiver if the baby stops breathing.
  
  Section::::Manufacturers.
   In 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended babies sleep on their backs to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Although the rate of SIDS decreased by 50% since the Safe to Sleep campaign started in 1994, an unintended consequence was that babies missed out on the twelve or so hours they used to spend in the prone position and there was a sharp increase in skull deformations in infants. Along with tummy time, rotating the direction infants lie in their crib as well as avoiding too much time in car seats, carriers, and bouncers are behaviors recommended to alleviate the associated risks of infants sleeping in a supine position.
   One theory suggests the rhyme narrates a mother gently rocking her baby to sleep, as if the baby were riding the treetops during a breeze; then, when the mother lowers the baby to her crib, the song says "down will come baby."
   BULLET::::- Do not use infant sleep positioners. Using a positioner to hold an infant on his or her back or side for sleep is dangerous and not needed.
  
  BULLET::::- Make sure everyone who cares for the baby knows to place the baby on his or her back to sleep and about the dangers of soft bedding. Talk to child care providers, grandparents, babysitters, and all caregivers about SIDS risk. Remember, every sleep time counts.
  