And it's sooooooo simple.

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It's the question every parent has: just how do you get your baby to go to sleep? Well scientists may now have the answer and we're TOTALLY here for it ...

According to researchers at the RIKEN Centre for Brain Science in Japan, it's a simple 2-step procedure that anyone can do. And, based on their studies of 21 babies – from newborn up to 7 months – they're calling it an 'immediate solution for infant crying'. Woah..

Dr Kumi Kuroda, one of the authors of the research paper published in the scientific journal Current Biology Research , said:

'Excessive crying, especially during the night-time, is shown to be a major source of parental stress.

'This roughly 15-minute method is worth trying before they start seriously worrying about what’s wrong with the baby.'

What's the 2-step technique?

So what is this amazing baby sleep trick, and what should we be doing?

Step 1 ...

When your little one is awake and grizzling, or has woken up having a wailing fit, the first step is to walk around carrying them for 5 minutes,

BUT, say the scientists, this should be done with minimum abrupt movement and no sudden changes of direction, so briskly pacing around the garden probably isn't a great idea. A nice gentle stroll around the bedroom should do it.

Step 2 ...

For the second stage, you need to sit down and hold your baby for between 5-8 minutes, before laying them back down in their cot again. By this point they should be soundly in the land of nod ...

What's the science behind the baby sleep technique?

The research team trialed four different methods to get crying babies off to sleep, including being held by their sitting mothers, being held by their standing mothers, being placed in a still cot, or lying down in a rocking cot.

They used baby heart monitors and videos to record the effects on the little ones, and found crying decreased only when babies were in motion, either being rocked or carried around.

Sitting still or just putting them back in the cot did nothing to calm them down. But when two of the methods were used together, they worked.

After being gently walked around for five minutes or so, all of the crying babies were soothed, and almost half had fallen asleep. However, when placed in their cot at that point, (directly after walking) a third of the babies woke again almost as soon as they were put back to bed.

The key part of keeping them dozing was the further period of just sitting still with them.

Heart monitor data revealed that when contact with their parent was broken in the early stages of sleep – usually when they were laid in the cot – their heart rates could rise enough to wake them, no matter how gently they were laid down.

But sitting still with them for around 5-8 minutes as they fell into a deeper sleep allowed them to then be put in their cot without waking.

They concluded that the walk-and-hold method was preferable over all other methods to get babies to stop crying, such as letting them cry themselves to sleep.

Wow! Sounds pretty easy right? Will you be giving it a go? Be sure to let us know if it works for you!

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