At a glance
- Singing improves infant mood: A Yale-led study found that babies whose parents sang more often were calmer and had better moods overall.
- Simple and accessible intervention: Singing is a natural, low-cost way for parents to support infant wellbeing without complex tools or training.
- Potential wider benefits: Improved infant mood may positively affect family wellbeing and could help reduce caregiver stress and postpartum depression.
Singing to your baby could meaningfully improve their mood, according to a Yale-led study published in Child Development. The research suggests this simple, instinctive practice not only calms fussy infants but may also benefit family wellbeing.
“Singing is something that anyone can do, and most families are already doing,” said Eun Cho, postdoctoral researcher at the Yale Child Study Center and co-first author. “We show that this simple practice can lead to real health benefits for babies.”
The study involved 110 parents with infants mostly under four months old. One group was encouraged to sing more, supported with songbooks, videos, and weekly music ideas. Over four weeks, all participants received daily smartphone surveys about infant mood, fussiness, caregiver mood, and musical activity.
“We don’t always need to be focusing on expensive, complicated interventions when there are others that are just as effective and easy to adopt,”
said co-author Lidya Yurdum, a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam.
Parents naturally began singing more often—especially to soothe fussy babies. “We didn’t say to parents, ‘We think you should sing to your baby when she’s fussy,’ but that’s what they did,” said study lead Samuel Mehr, director of The Music Lab. “Parents intuitively gravitate toward music as a tool for managing infants’ emotions.”
Surveys showed that babies whose parents sang more frequently had significantly improved moods overall, not just during the music.
“Every parent knows that the mood of an infant affects everyone around that infant,” Mehr said. “If improvements to infant mood persist over time, they may well generalize to other health outcomes.”
The researchers are launching a new study, Together We Grow, to assess long-term impacts of singing on infant mood, sleep, and possibly caregiver wellbeing, including stress or postpartum depression.
“Even before our intervention, these participating families were particularly musical,” Yurdum noted. “Despite that…we saw benefits. That suggests that the strength of singing…would likely be even stronger in a family that does not already rely on music.”
Previous research by The Music Lab has shown that lullabies are a universal human behavior, often conveying reassurance. “Parents send babies a clear signal in their lullabies: I’m close by, I hear you, I’m looking out for you — so things can’t be all that bad,” Mehr said.
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The post Why Singing to Babies Helps Soothe and Boost Mood first appeared on MQ Mental Health Research.
