The repetitive movements and vibrations permeate the minds of children like a habit that makes them let their guard down, which leads them to sleep.
-1606922274.jpg "Why do babies fall asleep better when rocked?")
- Babies fall asleep easier when rocked
- In flies, regular vibrations are a sign that they can sleep soundly, because it means that they are not a danger
- Humans work identically, thanks to a logic of habituation, the first form of learning
This is a gesture that parents know well. A rocking motion and road vibrations during a long drive are two techniques for putting a child to sleep. These soft and repetitive stimuli rock the youngest and encourage them to sleep. In a study published on December 1 in the journal Cell Reportsresearchers at Thomas Jefferson University (USA) have hypothesized that these vibrations put us to sleep through “habituation”, the simplest form of learning.
animal behavior
The mechanism of falling asleep thanks to the pendulum movement is not specific to the human species. Fruit flies, those little insects that usually fly and walk on the surface of sweet fruit, work the same way. With their study, the researchers discovered that flies also use this system to sleep. Thanks to the vibrations they can emit and which rock them, they are less sensitive than others to light impulses. In addition, these vibrations allow them to have better quality sleep, which makes them more alert once awake.
“Babies like to be rocked to sleep, but the neural mechanisms behind this well-known phenomenon remain largely a mystery. We wanted to establish the fruit fly as a model to study the mechanisms of sleep induction by mechanical stimulation”explains Kyunghee Koh, associate professor of neuroscience at the Vickie & Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience and the Center for Synaptic Biology at Thomas Jefferson University and lead author of the study.
An addiction to movement
Note that the vibrations make the flies more active than usual, but that this effect eventually puts them to sleep gradually. In addition, they fall asleep better when exposure to vibrations is repeated several times, which implies habituation in them. “Flies learn over time that the vibrations are non-threatening, decreasing their response to stimulation that would otherwise make them alert”, emphasizes Kyunghee Koh.
It is impossible to know for the moment if a similar mechanism is not in place in humans, but it would not be absurd. This could very well be explained by a reflex from our nomadic ancestors, who like the fly, understood that a repetitive movement was not necessarily a sign of danger.
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