You’re lying in a hammock by a breezy shore. The hammock rocks softly [--1--]. In no time…(snoring). It turns out that’s not just the relaxation of being on vacation that’s bringing on sleep. It’s the rocking hammock. That might not be a huge surprise—babies get rocked to sleep. But researchers wanted to know how rocking works.

They [--2--] 12 healthy males, all good sleepers. Each volunteer twice took an afternoon nap in a dark room on a [--3--] bed that could rock. For one nap, the bed was still. For the other, it rocked gently.

All the men fell asleep faster when they swayed. And the scientists monitored the men’s brain activity during all the naps. They found that rocking increased the [--4--] of what’s called N2, a non-REM stage that accounts for about half of a good night’s sleep.

Rocking also increased deep-sleep-associated brain activity—so-called slow oscillations as well as bursts of action called sleep spindles. The research was published in the journal Current Biology. [Laurence Bayer et al, Rocking synchronizes brain waves during a short nap]

The next step is to find out whether rocking can help treat [--5--]. Meanwhile, insomniacs can always try a hammock.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
back and forth recruited custom-made duration sleep disorders
搖啊搖，搖到美夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng) 風(fēng)和日麗的海邊，你躺在一張吊床上，吊床來(lái)回的搖晃著。不一會(huì)。。。（鼾聲響起）。其實(shí)并不是僅僅是假日的放松讓你進(jìn)入夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng)，還有搖晃的吊床的功勞。小嬰孩也是在輕晃中進(jìn)入夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng)，這也不是一個(gè)很稀奇的事。不過研究人員想了解這種晃動(dòng)是如何發(fā)揮作用的。 于是他們招募了12名睡眠良好的健康男性。每個(gè)志愿者都會(huì)在一個(gè)黑暗的小房間床上睡兩次午覺，這張床特別訂做，可以晃動(dòng)。第一次午覺，小床靜止，第二次，小床輕輕晃動(dòng)。 當(dāng)小床晃動(dòng)的時(shí)候，所有的志愿者更快進(jìn)入夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng)?？茖W(xué)家全程監(jiān)控這這些人的大腦活動(dòng)。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)晃可以增加N2的持續(xù)時(shí)間。N2是就是非快速眼動(dòng)階段，占據(jù)著一整夜睡眠比例的一半。 搖晃同時(shí)還增加了有關(guān)深度睡眠的大腦活動(dòng)---也就是所謂的緩慢振幅，以及睡眠紡錘波的活動(dòng)。這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)布在《現(xiàn)代生物學(xué)》期刊上。 研究的下一步就是找出搖晃是否可以幫助治療睡眠障礙癥。當(dāng)然，失眠的孩子可以去試試吊床。