Can a lullaby do more than soothe a child and help them fall asleep? A new study suggests that singing to your baby can lower their heart rate and even ease any pain they may be suffering, BBC News reports.
Published in the journal Psychology of Music, the latest study on the benefits of music therapy looked at 37 children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the UK. Nurses monitored their heart rates and pain levels while they were either played a song on the guitar, read a story or left alone.
The research team from at the hospital and from the University of Roehampton discovered that the music not only improved the moods of sick kids, it also lowered their pain levels and reduced their heart rates, though the results were not the same for every child.
"It varies from child to child. Not every child wants to have music but for those that opt to have music I think it's very important for them," music therapist Nick Pickett, who plays guitars for ill children at the hospital, told BBC News. "I think the most rewarding thing is if you are working with a child that is very distressed, a little one, and you go in, play some live calming, quiet music and watch the child go to sleep, that is great, it's the best reward."
Dr. Pickett played "Five Little Ducks", "See-Saw Marjorie Daw" and "Hush-a-Bye Baby" for the kids, noting that the gentle noise was quite relaxing for many of the youngsters, all of whom are under three years old.
"Lullabies are something that children are familiar with. They're intended by parents to be used with their children to create relaxation and remove tension," David Hargreaves, of Roehampton University, who is a jazz pianist as well as professor of music psychology, said to BBC News.
In fact, the earliest records of lullabies can be traced back to Babylonian times
"We are beginning to work out what aspects of the music affects what aspects of the physical and psychological response," Hargreaves said. "Music has an effect on our thinking, our social behavior, our emotions and our physical responses of course. What we are saying here is that children's well-being - their levels of anxiety and relaxation - are mediated by the emotion that the music causes."
