Secret tip to get babies off to sleep in 15 minutes

Scientists have discovered how to get babies to stop crying and fall asleep in less than a quarter of an hour.

The secret, published in Current Biolog y, is to walk with them for five minutes then sit and hold them for eight minutes. The Riken Centre in Japan studied how babies reacted when held by their mothers while walking, held by their sitting mothers, placed in a fixed cot or rocking cot.

Babies have a strategic advantage when it comes to night manoeuvres. If they wake up and have a good cry, they can always take a nap during the day while their parents are hard at it earning money for the Oat & Banana Multigrain breakfast food. So the Philosopher’s Stone is to get the little darlings back to sleep PDQ. This can mean laboriously taking the lovable creature for a soothing drive; others find a spot of hoovering does the trick, though for flat-dwellers, the neighbours might complain. Now research from Japan prescribes a double soothing dose. First take a five-minute walk with the infant clasped in your arms. Then sit holding it for eight minutes till Morpheus takes over. It might not be the most original scientific discovery, but to a frazzled parent it could be worth more than a Nobel prize.