Changes

Many modern lullabies, of course, are based of their ancient or older counterparts, with themes often focused on fear, lurking dark creatures, or even death. However, studies do also show that lullabies in the past and modern period have beats that do help babies calm their hearts and that a song in a quiet tone with humming often has the effect of relaxing muscles and reducing blood pressure. Lullabies that have been composed recently often do not have the same melancholy or depressing nature of earlier works, although sometimes they do, while a modern rhythm and tunes accompany these works. Works such as Azure Ray have lyrics about not being able to sleep, but the tune appears to be more happy. Even old lullabies such as Rock a Bye Baby or Hush Little Baby have been adapted with often less melancholy beats. Many parents today have been using more upbeat songs and either modifying them or simply playing them at a lower level to get their babies to sleep. However, some sleep therapist and doctors do not thing all of these works might be appropriate. Recent research does suggest having a more melancholy beat and rhythm helps with sleep. There might be something about those old lullabies then, even if their lyrics are frightful or depressing, in that they generally create the type of sound that put babies to sleep more easily and also help relax babies so that their sleep is more efficient and beneficial.<ref>For more on how lullabies affect our mental state, see: Hellberg, D. 2015. Rhythm, Evolution and Neuroscience in Lullabies and Poetry. <i>Association for the Study of Ethical Behavior/Evolutionary Biology in Literature</i> 11 (1) </ref>