WASHINGTON – “Rock-a-bye baby” may be doing more than helping put a child to sleep — it calms them too, according to a new study.
Science is now proving what generations of parents have known: singing to babies calms them down. The Times of London reports that researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Central London, tested babies between one week and four weeks old and their reactions to familiar books and songs.
Researchers measured the babies’ heart rates and pain levels before singing and reading to them. After they had been sung to, their heart rates and pain levels were lowered, according to the research. In some cases, reading stories lowered neither.
With the research in mind, Rod Stewart may be more effective at eliciting emotion from babies than any lullaby, demonstrated in a YouTube video that has gone viral online.
A video posted earlier this month shows a 10-month-old girl moved to tears when her mother sings Rod Stewart’s “My Heart Can’t Tell You No.” The baby’s tears don’t seem to be those of sorrow, but ones of extreme emotional connection to a ballad roughly 25 years older than her.
The video has garnered more than 4.9 million page views as of Wednesday.
Watch the video below:
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