Nothing is worse than dozing off for a much needed rest only to be woken up from your slumber.
Whether it be the sound of the television blaring in the next room or your morning alarm going off, frustration can run rampant.
But for some people, they have the blessed ability to sleep through almost anything.
However, there is one thing kids are more inclined to wake up from, and it's the voice of their mother.
"Children are remarkably resistant to awakening by sound when asleep."
Researchers from the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio conducted a study to identify whether a projected voice of a child's mother was more effective at waking them up compared to other noises.
The study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, was composed of 170 kids between the ages of five and 12, where researchers submitted them to three different voice alarms, along with a commonly used tone.
They found that the sleeping children were three times more likely to be woken up by one of the voice alarms instead of the piercing sound of the smoke alarm.
Statistics showed that when the youngsters heard the sound of their mother's voice, between 86% to 91% were awakened, in contrast to the 53% of kids whose slumber was interrupted by the high-pitched signaling device.
Dr. Mark Splaingard, the study's co-author and director of the hospital's sleep disorders center, said these results could help save lives in the future.
"Children are remarkably resistant to awakening by sound when asleep," he said, adding that they need more sleep compared to adults.
"We were able to find a smoke alarm sound that reduces the amount of time it takes for many children ... to wake up and leave the bedroom."
But that wasn't the only aspect of sleep researchers examined.
"This study confirmed that a maternal voice alarm is better than a traditional high-pitch tone alarm."
In a follow-up experiment, researchers looked at how long it took children to "escape" their rooms from a potential fire, and like the previous report, their mothers' voices were more efficient compared to smoke alarms.
The study showed children who heard their mom's voice left the room between 18 to 28 seconds, while kids who heard the smoke alarm took an average of 282 seconds (or nearly five minutes) to come out.
"This study confirmed that a maternal voice alarm is better than a traditional high-pitch tone alarm for waking children and prompting their escape," lead author Dr. Gary Smith explained.
It was also revealed that children didn't need to hear their mother say their name for her alarm to work, as tests showed it had no significant impact.
"This means one alarm could work for multiple children sleeping near each other in a home," Smith said.
[H/T: Metro]
