Researchers from Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine studied 50 babies in the NICU. The infants listened to a six-hour recording of their mothers reading. The researchers monitored the infants’ sleep during the recording and for six hours when the recording weren’t playing.
They found that infants woke up less often during the six hours of listening to the recordings, even when noise levels in the environment, such as alarms and ventilators, were high.
Researchers noted that while infants born at 35 weeks gestation or older slept more soundly during the recordings, infants born prior to 35 weeks gestation did not experience as big a difference in sleep patterns.
“The NICU environment influences sleep,” said lead study author Renée Shellhaas, MD, a pediatric neurologist at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. “If we can find simple tools to help babies in the unit get higher quality sleep, they could make a big difference to infants’ health and development, especially for those who must stay in the hospital for an extended time.”
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