The  phenomenon  of  rocking

With the development of science it became clear that rocking is not just rhythmic rocking of the child, but a psychophysiological phenomenon formed in the womb and fixed during breastfeeding, which forms a sense of peace, comfort and safety that remains throughout a person's life. Every person has a memory of rocking as a state of peace, comfort and security, because rocking, cuddling, and feeding produce the pleasure hormones serotonin, endorphin, oxytocin and dopamine, which are the cause of feelings of happiness, peace and serenity.

 

Rocking in the womb is experienced by absolutely all people: when a pregnant woman walks, vertical movements of her torso are made, causing uniform vertical rocking of the water sac, picked up by the otolithic system of the vestibular apparatus of the human embryo. There are scientific hypotheses that the memories of a comfortable state of rest and security, received in the womb, accompany a person throughout his life.

 

It is the pleasure of rocking and the associated hormonal activity explains the popularity of furniture for rocking - rocking chairs, recliners, home swings, which are bought by millions, and on which are spent tens of billions of $US.

 

But children mostly sleep well, and teenagers also sleep well, and young people, in general, with sleep all right. But after 40 - as luck would have it, and after 60, sleep becomes a problem for most people. What can you do, age-related neurodegenerative (very unpleasant word) changes.

 

It is surprising that adults, wanting to sleep like babies in the figurative sense, do not think about the actual possibility of such sleep and do not make any effort to achieve such sleep. Habit is a stubborn thing.

 

In scientific literature and medical journals there are many articles about the positive effect of cyclic vestibular stimulation (rocking) on rocking to sleep and sleep of adults, about the reduction of the time of falling asleep with rocking, about the possibility of forming breathing in sleep due to external stimuli. In university laboratories, devices have been created to study falling asleep and sleep under conditions of vestibular stimulation.

 

But while cradles, bassinets and rocking beds are leading the way in the infant sleep products industry, modern technology has left rocking without proper attention in the adult sleep products industry.

 

Since 2010, the Sensory Systems Laboratory (SMS Lab) at ETH Zurich has been conducting scientific research on the effects of rocking to sleep with several Somnomat laboratory rocking machines, which has led to a surge of interest in rocking to sleep and a large number of scientific publications and studies.

 

A significant limitation of scientific research on the effect of rocking to sleep and sleep, noted by all authors, is the lack of rocking beds, rare copies of which, such as Somnomat, are expensive, bulky, uncomfortable, noisy, non-functional, produced in single copies, do not allow to conduct a sufficient number of studies and form a sufficient statistical array of results, segmented by sex, age, physical and physiological parameters, the presence of diseases.

 

The Somnomat research unit is not like a bed and cannot be used for consumer purposes. Due to its design, Somnomat operates with noise and vibration (this is clearly audible in the videos and follows from its design), which negatively affects the subjects and significantly distorts the research results.

 

At the same time, scientific studies have confirmed the positive effect of vestibular stimulation (rocking) on the time of rocking to sleep and sleep in general. In addition, the positive results of the effect of motion sickness on the duration of the deep slow-wave sleep phase N3 and on memory consolidation (the transition of memory from short-term to long-term) became extremely important. With an imperfect test methodology and a limited number of subjects, the positive results of rocking to sleep were published in Current Biology in 2010-2021 and in other scientific journals linked below.

 

Unlike Somnomat's scientific installations, the Bedy rocking bed is a consumer bed: its size and appearance are indistinguishable from a conventional fixed bed. The Bedy rocking bed can be assembled using standard components and can be easily transported from place to place.

 

Thanks to several dozen copies of Bedy rocking bed, it is possible to conduct large-scale research on the impact of rocking to sleep, day and night sleep, the effectiveness of Bedy Active Breath technology among different groups of users with and without health and sleep problems.

 

At the peak of their popularity, waterbeds captured 22% of the US market: sex in motion, sex on a rocking surface had a very large number of fans. Among adult products there are bandages, which are swings for sex, judging by their variety and the abundance of sites on the Internet dedicated to sex on the swing, this kind of sex has many adherents. In the classic movie scenes of sex on swings and sex on the swinging waves used many times, and in porn videos such stories are devoted to separate sections. But most importantly, sex on a rocking bed is a new thing, new sensations, new emotions.

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It is hoped that sex on rocking bed will find its fans, and there will be a lot of them.

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Scientific publications in the field of motion sickness and vestibular stimulation during sleep:

 

- Non-Pharmacological Intervention for Personalizing Sleep Quality through Gentle Rocking Motion. Vulturar DM, Moacă LȘ, Chețan IM, Vesa ȘC, Alexescu TG, Grigorescu C, Trofor AC, Stoia MA, Nemes AF, Todea DA.J Pers Med. 2024 Feb 19;14(2):218. doi: 10.3390/jpm14020218.PMID: 3839265

- Effect of a Recliner Chair with Rocking Motions on Sleep Efficiency. Baek S, Yu H, Roh J, Lee J, Sohn I, Kim S, Park C.Sensors (Basel). 2021 Dec 8;21(24):8214. doi: 10.3390/s21248214.PMID: 34960304 Free PMC article.

- Effect of Rocking Movements on Afternoon Sleep. van Sluijs RM, Rondei QJ, Schluep D, Jäger L, Riener R, Achermann P, Wilhelm E.Front Neurosci. 2020 Jan 21;13:1446. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01446. eCollection 2019.PMID: 32038144 Free PMC article.

- Whole-Night Continuous Rocking Entrains Spontaneous Neural Oscillations with Benefits for Sleep and Memory. Perrault AA, Khani A, Quairiaux C, Kompotis K, Franken P, Muhlethaler M, Schwartz S, Bayer L.Curr Biol. 2019 Feb 4;29(3):402-411.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.12.028. Epub 2019 Jan 24.PMID: 30686735

- Woodward, S.; Tauber, E.S.; Spielman, A.J.; Thorpy, M.J. Effects of Otolithic Vestibular Stimulation on Sleep. Sleep 1990, 13, 533–537.

- Chalmers, R.; Howard, R.; Wiles, C.; Spencer, G. Use of the Rocking Bed in the Treatment of Neurogenic Respiratory Insufficiency. QJM Int. J. Med. 1994, 87, 423–429.

- Bayer, L.; Constantinescu, I.; Perrig, S.; Vienne, J.; Vidal, P.-P.; Mühlethaler, M.; Schwartz, S. Rocking Synchronizes Brain Waves during a Short Nap. Curr. Biol. 2011, 21, R461–R462.

- Mölle, M.; Born, J. Slow Oscillations Orchestrating Fast Oscillations and Memory Consolidation. In Progress in Brain Research; Elsevier: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2011; Volume 193, pp. 93–110. ISBN 978-0-444-53839-0.

- Ngo, H.-V.V.; Martinetz, T.; Born, J.; Mölle, M. Auditory Closed-Loop Stimulation of the Sleep Slow Oscillation Enhances Memory. Neuron 2013, 78, 545–553.

- Morita, Y.; Yamaguchi, K.; Ashida, K.; Ikeura, R.; Yokoyama, K. Verification of Sleep-Inducing Effect by Excitation Apparatus Simulating Mother’s Embrace and Rocking Motion. In Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control, Kuslin, Poland, 3–5 July 2013; pp. 80–85.

- Del Vecchio, F.; Nalivaiko, E.; Cerri, M.; Luppi, M.; Amici, R. Provocative Motion Causes Fall in Brain Temperature and Affects Sleep in Rats. Exp. Brain Res. 2014, 232, 2591–2599.

- Ashida, K.; Morita, Y.; Ikeura, R.; Yokoyama, K.; Ding, M.; Mori, Y. Effective Rocking Motion for Inducing Sleep in Adults - Verification of Effect of Mothers Embrace and Rocking Motion. J. Robot. Netw. Artif. Life 2015, 1, 285.

- Crivelli, F.; Omlin, X.; Rauter, G.; Von Zitzewitz, J.; Achermann, P.; Riener, R. Somnomat: A Novel Actuated Bed to Investigate the Effect of Vestibular Stimulation. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 2016, 54, 877–889.

- Omlin, X.; Crivelli, F.; Heinicke, L.; Zaunseder, S.; Achermann, P.; Riener, R. Effect of Rocking Movements on Respiration. PLoS ONE 2016, 11, e0150581.

- Shibagaki, H.; Ashida, K.; Morita, Y.; Ikeura, R.; Yokoyama, K. Verifying the Sleep-Inducing Effect of a Mother’s Rocking Motion in Adults. J. Robot. Netw. Artif. Life 2017, 4, 129–133.

- Kimura, H.; Kuramoto, A.; Inui, Y.; Inou, N. Mechanical Bed for Investigating Sleep-Inducing Vibration. J. Healthc. Eng. 2017, 2017, 2364659.

- Omlin, X.; Crivelli, F.; Näf, M.; Heinicke, L.; Skorucak, J.; Malafeev, A.; Fernandez Guerrero, A.; Riener, R.; Achermann, P. The Effect of a Slowly Rocking Bed on Sleep. Sci. Rep. 2018, 8, 2156.

- Perrault, A.A.; Khani, A.; Quairiaux, C.; Kompotis, K.; Franken, P.; Muhlethaler, M.; Schwartz, S.; Bayer, L. Whole-Night Continuous Rocking Entrains Spontaneous Neural Oscillations with Benefits for Sleep and Memory. Curr. Biol. 2019, 29, 402–411.e3.

- Kompotis, K.; Hubbard, J.; Emmenegger, Y.; Perrault, A.; Mühlethaler, M.; Schwartz, S.; Bayer, L.; Franken, P. Rocking Promotes Sleep in Mice through Rhythmic Stimulation of the Vestibular System. Curr. Biol. 2019, 29, 392–401.e4.

- van Sluijs, R.M.; Rondei, Q.J.; Schluep, D.; Jäger, L.; Riener, R.; Achermann, P.; Wilhelm, E. Effect of Rocking Movements on Afternoon Sleep. Front. Neurosci. 2020, 13, 1446.

- van Sluijs, R.; Wilhelm, E.; Rondei, Q.; Omlin, X.; Crivelli, F.; Straumann, D.; Jäger, L.; Riener, R.; Achermann, P. Gentle Rocking Movements during Sleep in the Elderly. J. Sleep Res. 2020, 29.

- Muto, T.; Yoshizawa, M.I.; Kim, C.; Kume, K. Sleep-Improving Effects of a Novel Motion Mattress. Sleep Biol. Rhythm. 2021, 19, 247–253.