如何哄睡哭闹不止的宝宝？（下）

Now, to test the transport response in humans, Kuroda and her colleagues had 21 moms try four different approaches to getting their fussy babies to hush.

现在，为了测试人类的运输反应，Kuroda和她的同事找到了21位妈妈，让她们尝试四种让哭闹不止的宝宝安静下来的方法。

They held the babies while walking or just sitting. They pushed them in a stroller or placed them in a crib or on a couch—for just five minutes.

她们抱着婴儿走路、抱着婴儿坐下、把婴儿放在婴儿车里、或把婴儿放在婴儿床或沙发上，时间为5分钟。

And we found that all the infants stopped crying, and more than half of them fell asleep, during or soon after the five minutes of carrying—even in the daytime.

研究发现，在五分钟“拥抱”内或不久后，所有的婴儿都停止了哭闹，半数的婴儿都睡着了，甚至在白天。

That’s a time when they wouldn’t normally be trying to nap.

这段时间他们通常不会睡觉。

Laying the babies down or sitting with them did nothing.

让婴儿躺下或与婴儿坐在一起都没有任何作用。

But in the stroller—which seemed to work as well as the carry-and-walk approach—the babies relaxed. Their heart rate slowed, and they dropped off to sleep.

但是，在婴儿车里——这似乎与“抱着走”的方法一样奏效——婴儿放松了。他们的心率慢了下来，睡着了。

Then came the tricky part.

接下来是棘手的部分。

When the mothers tried to put their sleepy babies to bed, more than one third of the infants became alert again.

当妈妈试图把困倦的婴儿放到床上时，超过三分之一的婴儿再次变得警觉起来。

It turns out that detaching from mom triggers a physiological response that can wake a baby right up again. That’s because...Sleep is shallow in the initial phase.

结果证明，与妈妈分离会触发一种生理反应，导致婴儿再次醒来。那是因为……初期睡眠较浅。

In that early stage of sleep, which lasts about eight minutes in babies that are four to five months old, a gentle touch or a quietly closing door is enough to raise their heart rate and remind them that they were vocally objecting to their current condition just a minute or two ago. The solution?

对于四到五个月大的婴儿来说，在睡眠的早期阶段会持续大约八分钟，轻轻抚摸或悄悄关门就足以提高他们的心率，并让他们想起来，就在一两分钟前，他们还在哭闹反对目前的状况。解决办法呢？

Waiting five to eight minutes after sleep onset stabilizes the sleep state.

睡眠开始后等待5到8分钟会稳定睡眠状态。

So Kuroda says you should sit with your snoozing offspring for an extra eight minutes before attempting to lay them down.

Kuroda表示，你应该和打盹的孩子多坐八分钟，然后再尝试让他们躺下。

This method of five-minute walking and five-to-eight-minute sitting, is cost-free, science-based and effective.

这种走5分钟、坐5至8分钟的方法零花费、以科学为依据、有效。

So I think it is worth trying before worrying about the infant crying or what’s wrong with the baby or getting frustrated and stressed out.

我认为在担心婴儿哭闹、出问题，或是对此感到沮丧、压力大前，这个方法值得一试。

If it works for a lioness, it should work for a tiger mom—or any exhausted parent hoping for just a few minutes’ peace.

如果这个方法对母狮有效，那么它也应该对虎妈有效——或者任何希望得到几分钟安宁的疲惫父母有效。

For Scientific American’s Science, Quickly, I’m Karen Hopkin.

感谢收听科学美国人的《科学快讯》栏目，我是凯伦·霍普金。