Hammocks: Sway Yourself to Sleep
Monday, September 5, 2011 at 5:09AM
Did you ever wonder why you're more likely to doze off while lying in a hammock or sitting in a rocking chair? A small study from the University of Geneva in Switzerland suggests that the rocking motion allows some of us to go to sleep sooner than we do lying on a bed and encourages deeper sleep as well. The researchers asked 12 volunteers (none of whom had sleeping problems) to nap on a custom-made bed and on an experimental hammock. During their naps, the volunteers were hooked to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor their brain activity. Results showed that all of the volunteers fell asleep in less time when lying in the hammock than when they were on the bed. The swaying motion of the hammock also boosted the duration of the sleep stage that normally occupies sleeping at night, and increased spurts of brain activity known as sleep spindles, which are consistent with deeper sleep. The researchers next want to study whether swaying or rocking can improve longer periods of sleep and help treat insomnia.
Reader Comments (5)
No wonder children sleep better on swings. Now I know adults too sleep well on hammock.
It's my place of relaxation deep in the garden. Don't know what I would do without it.
Isabella stayed for hours in the hammock on a day she did not feel too well.
From the sounds of it, the study is quite small, but quite interesting. Anyone who has had a baby, or helped care for one, knows that rocking them and swinging them, whether in your arms or a bassonette, etc. has a calming effect and often induces sleep. This research on adults may be honing in on some primitive instinct in the humans. Maybe it takes us back to our time in the womb when we were constantlly rocked in our liquid bubble? I think there is a lot more interesting research to come on this particular topic.
That's an interesting discovery. Once they recommend that hammocks are great for better sleep and health, I'll definitely get one for myself. I've always wanted to have one, but never felt motivated to actually purchase it.