Rocking naps are the best, research proves

The article title is : "Hammock naps are the best, research proves".
But reading the article, it refers to "beds" rocking, and the same beds not rocking.
The news site has a picture of a hammock, but that doesn't mean one was used in the study.
This study is not hard for me to believe, because I'm one of those people who are put to sleep by being in a moving car, whether I'm a passenger or driver. If I'm well rested, I can drive for awhile w/o starting to fall asleep. The maximum I was able to do so was 3 hours.
Not at all convenient!

http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/22/6920006-hammock-naps-are-the-best-research-proves

By Cari Nierenberg
Ever notice that you sleep like a baby on a hammock? Maybe it's just the slow, soothing rocking motion that reminds grown-ups of being in a parent's arms until their little eyelids finally close.

Inspired by that concept, some Swiss scientists decided to examine the idea of rocking a person to sleep. Researchers wondered whether the see-sawing movement would make adults drift off sooner and how it affected sleep quality.

So they developed an "experimental hammock" -- a custom-made bed that gently swayed from side to side. They asked 12 participants, all of them men ages 22 to 38, who were all good sleepers, to take a 45-minute afternoon nap in this cradle for grown-ups.

They monitored the volunteers' brain waves throughout the nap and compared the results to having these same participants nap in the same bed without any rocking motion. The research appears in the June 21 issue of Current Biology.

"We observed a faster transition to sleep in each and every participant in the swinging condition," says Sophie Schwartz, a neuroscientist at the Sleep and Cognition Neuroimaging Lab at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the study's lead author.
"Not only does rocking make us fall asleep more quickly, but it also makes people sleep more deeply throughout the nap," she explains.

Compared to nodding off in a stationary bed, those napping in a swinging one had a longer duration of N2 sleep, a type of non-rapid eye movement sleep that makes up about half a night's shuteye. Scientists also observed a dramatic boost in brain-wave patterns seen in deep sleep.
"Motion has specific effects on the brain, and this is precisely what our study shows," says Schwartz. Although researchers expected that rocking would make volunteers conk out sooner, they were surprised it changed the quality of sleep and in such a sustained manner.


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