Lullabies can do more good to a baby than to just soothe them to sleep, it can also help ease pain, a new study suggests.
According to research conducted at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, lullabies can reduce pain in children and "alleviate their suffering," according to the Telegraph.
In order to conduct the study, researchers worked with children all under the age of 3 who were in hospital. In one group, researchers sang lullabies including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hushabye Baby and Five Little Ducks, read story books to the second group, and did nothing with the third group.
The researchers worked with three groups of hospitalized children all under 3 years old, singing lullabies to one, reading stories to another and the poor third group was left alone entirely.
The children's heart rates and pain perception were all monitored and only the ones who heard soothing songs showed decreases in both categories. It is thought that the calming tones ease pain by distracting the children from their illness.
"It shows that children can be affected physiologically by music," study author Professor David Hargreaves told the Telegraph. "The practical applications are fairly obvious. Music therapists are going to be a lot cheaper than drugs to numb pain."
Meanwhile, Professor Tim Griffiths, a neuroscientist with the Wellcome Trust told BBC Radio 4's Today program that music seems better than story-telling at tapping into the brain's emotional center.
"Babies and young children respond to the singer's voice first and instruments second. More than one instrument can actually become quite confusing and less effective."
"Facial expressions and visual stimulation during the performance of a lullaby are just as important and live performance allows the adult to adapt their singing depending on the child's mood."
