Best 10 modern pop songs to get your baby to sleep

A new study has revealed the pop songs most likely to send your kids off to sleep, with U2's 'One' containing the perfect lullaby formula.

The research, conducted by kids’ bed specialist Cuckooland, analysed more than 4,500 songs using data sourced from Spotify and its lullaby playlists, to find the most common childhood lullabies.

Calculating the average beats per minute (BPM), most common key and time signatures of the top 10 songs, the study found the perfect formula for a lullaby.

After matching the formula with tracks recently featured in the UK Top 40 charts and the Billboard Hot 100, the closest match to the formula was Jonas Brothers’ Only Human, with Taylor Swifts’ You Need To Calm Down ranking closely behind.

The research also analysed songs to find those with the closest properties to individual lullabies, with Stormzy’s Shut Up a close match to Hush Little Baby, and Ellie Goulding’s Hate Me sharing similarities with Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Wellbeing and happiness

Annaliese Grimaud, is a researcher at the Music & Science Lab at Durham University, and she explained the typical features of a lullaby.

She said “The function of a lullaby is to soothe a baby and put them to sleep, so common features we would expect to see in lullabies would be, a slow(ish) tempo, relatively quiet dynamics, simple rhythm pattern - potentially one that imitates a rocking movement - a simple melody that’s easier to memorise and easier to sing, predictability achieved by repetitive phrases and verses, and a high pitch due to the connotations that mothers/females usually sing lullabies.”

U2’s One contains all the properties of a ‘perfect lullaby’ according to the study. Russell Davis, director of Cuckooland, said: “We wanted to conduct some research into lullabies to see if there was an interesting match to any modern day pop songs. It’s a bit of fun and hopefully parents can get some use out of the findings with their own children.

“Bedtime is an important part of the day for your child, and having a good routine in place, whether a lullaby forms part of that or not is vital to wellbeing and happiness and that’s something we really believe in.”