Effect of Rocking Movements on Respiration

Abstract

For centuries, rocking has been used to promote sleep in babies or toddlers. Recent research suggested that relaxation could play a role in facilitating the transition from waking to sleep during rocking. Breathing techniques are often used to promote relaxation. However, studies investigating head motions and body rotations showed that vestibular stimulation might elicit a vestibulo-respiratory response, leading to an increase in respiration frequency. An increase in respiration frequency would not be considered to promote relaxation in the first place. On the other hand, a coordination of respiration to rhythmic vestibular stimulation has been observed. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of different movement frequencies and amplitudes on respiration frequency. Furthermore, we tested whether subjects adapt their respiration to movement frequencies below their spontaneous respiration frequency at rest, which could be beneficial for relaxation. Twenty-one healthy subjects (24–42 years, 12 males) were investigated using an actuated bed, moving along a lateral translation. Following movement frequencies were applied: +30%, +15%, -15%, and -30% of subjects’ rest respiration frequency during baseline (no movement). Furthermore, two different movement amplitudes were tested (Amplitudes: 15 cm, 7.5 cm; movement frequency: 0.3 Hz). In addition, five subjects (25–28 years, 2 males) were stimulated with their individual rest respiration frequency. Rocking movements along a lateral translation caused a vestibulo-respiratory adaptation leading to an increase in respiration frequency. The increase was independent of the applied movement frequencies or amplitudes but did not occur when stimulating with subjects’ rest respiration frequency. Furthermore, no synchronization of the respiration frequency to the movement frequency was observed. In particular, subjects did not lower their respiration frequency below their resting frequency. Hence, it was not feasible to influence respiration in a manner that might be considered beneficial for relaxation.

Effectiveness of Linear Vestibular Stimulation in Limiting Stress Induced Changes on Sleep Quality and Eating Behavior

“…Consistent with previous observations in this study, overall sleep quality was significantly improved and day time sleepiness was significantly decreased following vestibular stimulation in male and female intervention groups. Although linear swinging and rocking chairs are well known to induce sleep, the pathways involved are not clearly known [9].…”

“…Emotional eating, uncontrolled eating and increased tendency to eat nonnutritious food were observed in young adults with high stress [8]. Vestibular stimulation promotes sleep through relaxation effect, through direct and indirect connections with amygdala, sensory systems, thalamus, hypothalamus and brain stem areas [9]. Swinging has been reported to alter physiological parameters of sleep.…”

The role of respiration audio in multimodal analysis of movement qualities

“…First, in work, Vaessen and colleagues [55] search for distinct brain responses in fMRI data to the visual stimuli of full body movements, which differ in terms of motor planning. Second, several researchers observed spontaneous synchronization between the full-body movements and respiratory rhythms [4,14,35]. This phenomena is often explained with the concept of entrainment, i.e., by a temporal locking process in which one system's motion or signal frequency entrains the frequency of another system [53].…”

Influence of graviceptor stimulation initiated by off‐vertical axis rotation on ventilation

“…A study by Omlin et al. () showed that otolith stimulation by rocking movements along the longitudinal axis of the body affected human respiratory frequency. Monahan, Sharpe, Drury, Ertl, & Ray () found that stimulation of the semicircular canals, but not the otolith organs, increased ventilation in humans.…”

“…Although natural and caloric stimulations of the semicircular canals have been proved to induce alterations in respiration (Jauregui-Renaud, Gresty, Reynolds, & Bronstein, 2001;Jauregui-Renaud, Yarrow, Oliver, Gresty, & Bronstein, 2000), very little is known about the physiological importance and functional characteristics of the relationship between the otolithic and respiratory systems. A study by Omlin et al (2016) showed that otolith stimulation by rocking movements along the longitudinal axis of the body affected human New Findings…”