5 minutes of walking helps crying babies sleep, according to research

Most babies have unexplained excessive crying and trouble sleeping, which can lead to parental stress and rare cases of impulsive child abuse. Although sleep training methods and parenting education programs can improve infant crying and sleep issues over the long term, there is no clear recommendation for on-site behavioral interventions. Recently, a team of international scientists headed by the RIKEN Center for Brain Science discovered that the most effective way to soothe crying babies is to hold and walk with them for five minutes.

The transport response, an inherent behavior found in several altricial mammals, like mice, dogs, monkeys, and humans, whose offspring are not yet mature and cannot take care of themselves, has been the subject of an investigation by researchers. They have noted that when these animals carry and walk with their young, the bodies of the infants tend to become calm, and their heart rates decrease.

The researchers aimed to compare the impact of being carried, motionless maternal holding, and rocking on infants. They also wanted to observe if the effects of carrying persisted for longer periods. To do this, they conducted a study on 21 infants, where they were exposed to four conditions: walking maternal holding, sitting maternal holding, still crib, and rocking cot. Results revealed that when the infants were carried by their walking mothers or placed in a rocking cot, they experienced a calming effect, and their heart rates decreased within 30 seconds. However, sitting maternal holding or placing the baby in a still crib did not have the same effect. These findings contradict the conventional belief that maternal holding alone can reduce infant distress and suggest that additional movement may be required to soothe a crying infant.

Movement can have a calming effect on babies, activating their transport response. This calming effect is more noticeable when holding and walking continue for five minutes. In the study, all crying infants stopped crying, and almost half of them fell asleep. However, when mothers attempted to put their sleeping babies to bed, over one-third of them became alert again within 20 seconds. The research team discovered that all infants experience physiological responses, such as heart rate changes, that can awaken them as soon as they are detached from their mothers. Nonetheless, if babies have been asleep for an extended period before being laid down, they are less likely to wake up during the process.