Lullabies and Bedtime Songs: What Singing Does for Your Child

Singing lullabies calms babies in the moment. In lab studies, infants' heart rate and arousal dropped when they heard lullabies, even from cultures they had never heard, and a parent's singing soothed upset babies better than talking, especially a familiar song. What research has not shown is that lullabies make healthy babies sleep longer. Their value is comfort, connection, and a steady signal that sleep is near.

In short

• In a 2021 lab study, 144 US babies relaxed to eight unfamiliar foreign lullabies, measured by heart rate, pupil size and skin conductance.
• With 8- and 10-month-olds (68 per age group), a parent's singing reduced distress while talking increased it; familiar songs worked best.
• No trial we found in healthy babies at home shows lullabies lengthen sleep; a 2023 Cochrane review found music and voice don't raise oxygen levels in premature babies, though they probably lower heart rate.
• A parent's song means more than a toy's: 5-month-olds treated a tune as a social signal only when a parent had sung it to them.

Do lullabies help babies sleep?

They help babies settle, which is part of falling asleep. No trial we found shows that they make healthy babies sleep longer or through the night.

In a 2021 study, 144 US babies heard eight lullabies from foreign cultures and matched non-lullaby songs from other societies. Their heart rate, pupils and skin conductance showed that they relaxed to the lullabies, "consistently throughout the first year of life".

The NHS lists "singing a lullaby" among the steps of a soothing bedtime routine. That's the best way to think of it: one part of a predictable bedtime routine, not a sleep treatment on its own.

What are the benefits of singing to your baby?

Singing eases distress, holds your baby's attention, and turns a tune into something that means you. There are also early signs that it may help bonding and parents' mood.

• Less distress than talking. In a lab study of upset 8- and 10-month-olds (68 per age group), talking increased babies' negative mood, while singing, familiar or not, increased their attention to the parent and reduced distress. Familiar songs worked best and brought more smiles.
• A tune that means "you". In another study, 5-month-olds heard a new song at home, sung by a parent, played by a toy, or sung by a friendly stranger. Later, only babies whose parent had sung it looked longer at a new person singing that melody, even though all the babies remembered the tune. The outcome was social attention, not sleep.
• Possibly, bonding. In an Italian study, 83 women who sang lullabies in pregnancy and after birth reported stronger bonding at three months than 85 who didn't. Mothers chose whether to sing, so it shows a link, not cause. More on strengthening the parent–child bond.
• Your own mood. In a randomized trial of 134 mothers with symptoms of postnatal depression, ten weeks of group singing with their babies brought faster improvement for those with moderate to severe symptoms; across all mothers, the difference wasn't significant. If low mood lingers after birth, talk to your doctor.

Why do lullabies sound alike in every culture?

Lullabies seem to share features that babies everywhere respond to, so a song from your own family and language is as good a choice as any.

A study of song across cultures found music in every society observed, with infant care among the settings it's linked to. In a listening experiment, 750 internet users in 60 countries heard 14-second clips of songs from societies they didn't know and could still tell what each song was for, such as "used to soothe a baby". The authors of the 2021 infant study suggest babies "may be predisposed to respond to common features of lullabies found in different cultures".

Lullaby or play song: which works better?

Both have a place. Playful singing holds attention; soothing singing brings arousal down. That suggests an order: playful earlier, soothing last.

When 30 mothers sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" alternately in a soothing and a playful way, both mother's and baby's arousal fell below starting levels during the soothing versions and stayed steady during the playful ones, which drew more attention. A review of lab experiments by Trehub and colleagues adds that recorded play songs kept 6–9-month-olds content longer than speech, that a mother's singing with her face and movement helped crying 10-month-olds recover better than her talking, and that play songs lowered Western babies' arousal more than lullabies did.

So go by what your child responds to. The same calm-versus-exciting logic applies when choosing a bedtime story by age.

Is a recording as good as your own voice?

For connection, the evidence favors your live voice. No study we found shows a recording works as well for healthy babies at home, or compares a lullaby with white noise.

Besides the toy result above, a Turkish trial played premature babies in intensive care a lullaby recorded by their own mother, the same kind of lullaby in a standard female voice, or nothing. The groups showed no significant differences in physiological measures or pain scores. Recordings still have a place on nights you're away; our post on reading bedtime stories in your own voice covers that.

What doesn't the research show?

Several popular claims go further than the evidence:

• Longer sleep in healthy babies: no trial at home shows it.
• Higher oxygen in premature babies: a 2023 Cochrane review of 25 trials (1,532 infants) found music and voice "do not increase oxygen saturation" (high-certainty evidence). They probably lower heart rate, and no harms were reported. That's preterm babies in hospital only.
• Oxytocin in the baby: no study we found measured it during lullabies.
• Mozart makes babies smarter: nothing we could verify supports it.
• Only your own culture's songs work: US babies relaxed to foreign lullabies.

How do you sing a lullaby if you think you can't sing?

Sing anyway, softly and slowly. None of these studies measured how well parents sang. What they found mattered was familiarity, a soothing style, and that it was a parent singing.

1. Pick one song and keep it, so it becomes familiar to your baby.
2. Any song counts: a nursery rhyme, a chorus, a song from your childhood, in any language.
3. Slow down and get quieter with each verse; hum the lines you forget.
4. Make up words to a tune you know, and add your child's name.
5. Use your face and arms: rock, sway, keep your face close.
6. Share it out: two of these studies tested parents, not only mothers, so every caregiver can have a song.

With toddlers, let them choose the song or sing along.

What does a simple sung wind-down look like?

A few minutes of songs at the end of the same routine each night, getting slower and quieter as you go.

1. Bath or pajamas: a playful song.
2. A short story; our calm stories for sleep are free to read.
3. Lights low: your lullaby two or three times, slower and softer each round.
4. Hum the last round.
5. The same goodnight words, then leave.

In a randomized trial with 405 mothers of babies and toddlers aged 7–36 months, a nightly routine of bath, massage and quiet activities such as cuddling and a lullaby, with lights out within 30 minutes of the end of the bath, reduced night wakings and time to fall asleep within three weeks, and mothers' mood improved. The authors couldn't say whether that routine or any routine did it; Johnson & Johnson sponsored the study.

Where do MiniMinds lullabies fit?

MiniMinds, our bedtime-story app, also makes songs, including lullabies with lyrics. Given the toy finding, a good use is to learn the words together and then sing it yourself, keeping the recording for nights you need it.

Sources

1. Bainbridge CM, Bertolo M, et al. (2021). Infants relax in response to unfamiliar foreign lullabies. Nature Human Behaviour. link
2. NHS (2025). Helping your baby to sleep. NHS. link
3. Cirelli LK, Trehub SE (2020). Familiar songs reduce infant distress. Developmental Psychology. link
4. Mehr SA, Song LA, Spelke ES (2016). For 5-Month-Old Infants, Melodies Are Social. Psychological Science. link
5. Persico G, et al. (2017). Maternal singing of lullabies during pregnancy and after birth: Effects on mother-infant bonding and on newborns' behaviour. Concurrent Cohort Study. Women and Birth. link
6. Fancourt D, Perkins R (2018). Effect of singing interventions on symptoms of postnatal depression: three-arm randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry. link
7. Mehr SA, et al. (2019). Universality and diversity in human song. Science. link
8. Mehr SA, et al. (2018). Form and Function in Human Song. Current Biology. link
9. Cirelli LK, Jurewicz ZB, Trehub SE (2020). Effects of Maternal Singing Style on Mother-Infant Arousal and Behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. link
10. Trehub SE, Ghazban N, Corbeil M (2015). Musical affect regulation in infancy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. link
11. Özgürbüz N, et al. (2024). The effect of lullaby played to preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units on physiological parameters and pain. Journal of Pediatric Nursing. link
12. Haslbeck FB, et al. (2023). Musical and vocal interventions to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes for preterm infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. link
13. Mindell JA, et al. (2009). A nightly bedtime routine: impact on sleep in young children and maternal mood. Sleep. link