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posted by martyb on Sunday January 27 2019, @02:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the Rock-a-bye-baby dept.

Rocking like a baby promotes better sleep in adults

We know babies benefit from being rocked to sleep - now a study suggests it helps adults sleep better too.

Researchers from the University of Geneva built a special bed that rocked gently throughout the night. They tested it on 18 young adults and found they woke up fewer times and slept more deeply than on a normal bed. Scientists said the rocking motion resulted in a longer period of slow brainwaves which caused deep sleep, and improved their memory.

The volunteers spent three nights at a sleep laboratory in Geneva: one to get them used to sleeping there, one on a rocking bed and the other on the same bed, but in a still position. Electrodes recorded their brainwaves, and found that the period of deep sleep was extended by rocking.

Also at Science News.

Whole-Night Continuous Rocking Entrains Spontaneous Neural Oscillations with Benefits for Sleep and Memory (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.12.028) (DX)

Rocking Promotes Sleep in Mice through Rhythmic Stimulation of the Vestibular System (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.12.007) (DX)


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by sonamchauhan on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:18AM (12 children)

    by sonamchauhan (6546) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:18AM (#792548)

    Raising the bedhead 6" helps too,

    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/02/15/inclined-bed-therapy.aspx [mercola.com]

    Rocking, inclined bed... Seems like we sleep best just like we did in our parent's arms.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:44AM (11 children)

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:44AM (#792564) Journal

    Please don't link to Mercola's site as evidence of anything. The guy is a complete quack and public menace. (For discussion of why I use such extreme words, see this thread [soylentnews.org].

    Maybe that info on inclined beds is right. Or maybe it's quack nonsense designed to peddle Mercola's lunatic products. Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell from his site (and I don't have time right now to investigate thus issue and find a more reliable source.)

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @08:56AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @08:56AM (#792580)

      You cite his opposition to sunscreen, vaccines, and paying $600/yr for eyeglasses. If you'd done any research instead of appealing to the dubious authority of "muh science," you'd realize there's a strong case to be made in each department. Certain preservatives in vaccines, alongside novel combined vaccines that were never truly vetted, have indeed the potential to cause subtle harm. Many chemical sunscreens are potential carcinogens. And training your eyes regularly can indeed help you reduce or eliminate your glasses prescription.

      That said, Mercola's products are generally overpriced and sub-par, but they remain a safe bet if you haven't done enough research about a particular supplement to choose a better alternative.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:51AM (1 child)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:51AM (#792598) Homepage Journal

        I've got far more haters than any of SN's conspiracy theorists, yet I always use my real name - not even a nick.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:01PM (#792649)

          I was came of age in the glory days of anonymous shitposting; for better or worse, I'm never gonna give it up.

          Anonymity improves the quality of online discourse and keeps communities from becoming predictable circlejerks.

          More importantly, during my brief foray on Reddit I noticed I'd unconsciously change my way of writing, and eventually my way of thinking, to maximize expected karma and avoid downboats. Chilling effects indeed.

      • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:14PM

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:14PM (#792656) Journal

        If you'd done any research instead of appealing to the dubious authority of "muh science," you'd realize there's a strong case to be made in each department.

        I normally wouldn't response to this nonsense from an AC, but since you've convinced at least a couple people to mod you up, I'll simply say the following: ******CITATION NEEDED!!!*******

        I've done a lot of research on a lot of these topics over the years. I don't make hasty judgments without considering the facts. I DO however try to find reputable empirical studies. I don't care about what the "scientific establishment" or the "medical establishment" says -- I care about methodology and valid research.

        The scientific method is not perfect, and arguably it can never be perfectly practiced by humans (who will always have their biases). Nevertheless, I will accept empirical evidence and studies with a clear and consistent methodology over anecdotal BS any day. Mercola's site mixes in some valid information with loads of crap -- I never claimed it was ALL crap -- but one thing that's clear is that he's out to make a buck and will promote any lunatic fringe idea if he thinks it will make money. His secondary priority in choosing what to promote also seems to find stuff that seem "conspiracy theory-like," e.g., "stuff the medical establishment doesn't want you to know."

        The medical establishment has been wrong about many things. I don't care what they say, and I won't blindly accept their judgment anymore than Mercola's without evidence. But it must be GOOD evidence. And something like empirical science is the closest thing we have to testing claims in systematic and less biased manner.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by sonamchauhan on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:04AM (3 children)

      by sonamchauhan (6546) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:04AM (#792583)

      OK. A Google search then, with plenty of alternate links: :-)
      https://www.google.com/search?q=inclined+bed+therapy [google.com]

      My point is rocking an inclined body is pretty much how parents rock infants to sleep.

      Indeed, it may be how the fetus sleeps in the womb.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:55AM (1 child)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:55AM (#792599) Journal

        Or how the primates used to sleep on branches.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday January 27 2019, @02:55PM

          by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday January 27 2019, @02:55PM (#792621) Journal

          Just what I was thinking.

          "Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."

      • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:07PM

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:07PM (#792653) Journal

        OK. A Google search then, with plenty of alternate links: :-)

        I'm not sure what the smiley at the end of your comment is supposed to mean. No offense, but if it's supposed to mean, "Tee hee, yes, there's a boatload of other info out there about this, if you'd even taken 2 second to do a search," that does not impress me at all. I can link hundreds (perhaps thousands) of sites that endorse the existence of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster too. All a bunch of random links without questioning their accuracy does is prove there's a lot of random stuff on the internet.

        If, on the other hand, your smiley was to indicate, "Tee hee -- there's a load of other crap out there. Have fun sorting through it!" Then I agree. I don't have time to investigate this thoroughly, but I glanced over the first 30 or 40 links in that Google search, and what I see is about half of them or more are trying to sell products. Many others are random blogs or forum posts with people asking for info or promoting it without any serious research. A few links that looked a little more promising I actually clicked on and frequently found discussions of "This is how the Egyptians and King Tut slept" or other such nonsense. That doesn't bode well for scientific accuracy.

        Here's the thing: your idea doesn't sound that outlandish. Perhaps it's even true. But when I tried a few brief searches for actual scientific research on this stuff, it seems there's basically nothing out there.

        For example, if you like Google and actually want research, try Google scholar [google.com] instead.

        There are a few things that are suspicious there. First, there seem to be quite a few patents around this stuff, compared to no scientific research articles using that term. That's a common pattern you see with people who try to sell "alternative therapies" with no empirical support for their claims. About the only scientific research article that shows up in the first few pages of hits is this one [jamanetwork.com] for a "head up" inclined bed... except that article is from 1940.

        Honestly, I don't have more time to investigate this. If you want to seriously look into this issue, you may want to try to find ANY legitimate science research on point. If it exists, it must go by a different name in research articles than "inclined bed therapy."

        Searching for medical advice on the internet is just an utter crapshoot, honestly. I'm the first to note that the medical establishment often makes mistakes and has endorsed weird ideas in the past, but that's not a reason to abandon all empirical science and just depend on what some people who want to sell you something online would like you to believe. Quacks promoting expensive "cures" have been around forever.

        Again, maybe there's something to this. I'm not saying there isn't. I'm saying the vast majority of information I could find in 15 minutes of cursory searching appears to be promoting products and/or is from questionable sources. (And don't be taken in by deceptively named sites either -- one of the top hits for this is the so-called "Sophia Health Institute," an organization that in a couple minutes I could find out appears to promote itself as an "alternative medicine" organization led by one physician who sells really expensive "cures" for conditions that may or may not exist.) I did skim a couple blog posts from more disinterested parties who tried a few weeks sleeping on such a bed and had mixed results, but anecdote isn't enough data to conclude much.

        My point is rocking an inclined body is pretty much how parents rock infants to sleep.

        As I said, it sounds at least plausible. But until I see some actual empirical study testing this stuff -- rather than claims about how King Tut used to sleep -- I'll withhold judgment.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:50AM (2 children)

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:50AM (#792597) Homepage Journal

      A friend of mine is a conspiracy theorist; there are certain topics I _must_ avoid bringing up. It doesn't work at all to change the subject, but what seems is to simply pretend I didn't hear him.

      These people all _collect_ paranoia, in that they actively seek out conspiracies. It's not enough for them to be 9/11 Truthers while at the same time at peace with pizza. Given the choice between a conspiratorial and a rational explanation for any phenomenon at all, they will always choose the conspiracy.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday January 27 2019, @03:16PM (1 child)

        by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday January 27 2019, @03:16PM (#792625) Journal

        I recently learned a term pertaining to conspiracy thinking: teleological.

        Lot of children's shows make all kinds of inanimate objects talk and act like people. See eyes and a mouth on just about anything. All the time on Sesame Street, some problem comes up, and it turns out to be an inanimate object finally getting tired of being taken for granted and deciding to go missing or make trouble, to get some attention.