Get To Sleep Faster With A Hammock
Recent research points towards a hammock being a faster way to get to sleep than the traditional bed. Researchers identified this by studying the brain waves of people who were getting to sleep, and it was found that by gently swaying in a hammock the participants in the study were able to get to sleep faster. In a surprising finding the rocking motion also changed the composition of the sleep and promoted deeper sleeping.
Anecdotal evidence and countless parents will attest to the ability of rocking to sending someone off to sleep, particularly when it involves children, however the actual reason behind this has been a bit elusive. The study was headed by Schwartz, Michel Mühlethaler, Laurence Bayer and Irina Constantinescu, what they did was get 12 volunteers to either nap in a custom made hammock which could either be made to be stationary or to swing. All the test subjects where great sleepers who tended not to nap and did not have any sleep bouts during the day. The test subjects where then made to take two 45-minute afternoon naps, one with the hammock stationary and one with the hammock in motion. As this was going on their brain activity was checked using an electroencephalogram (EEG).
"We observed a faster transition to sleep in each and every subject in the swinging condition, a result that supports the intuitive notion of facilitation of sleep associated with this procedure," Mühlethaler said. "Surprisingly, we also observed a dramatic boosting of certain types of sleep-related [brain wave] oscillations."
Most specifically what was happening was that the rocking was increase the stage N2 sleep, a non rapid eye movement sleep which a normal sleeper will stay in on a good nights sleep. In the next steps of the experiments Schwartz and Mühlethaler plan to find out whether rocking can improve longer periods of sleep and to ascertain whether it may be useful for the treatment of insomnia.
Summary
Getting a hammock could be a easy way to get to sleep more quickly, and may be able to help get more restorative sleep, it is worth a swing.