For every mom who has ever looked around her living room, counted the number of bouncing/ rocking/ swinging contraptions littered everywhere and felt an overwhelming, creeping shame at the un-Marie Kondo-ness of it all, take heart. Science says all that rocking, bouncing, and swaying is, indeed, for a good cause. Namely: sleep. (Not that we ever doubted you, Dr. Karp!)

A couple of new studies published in Current Biology indicate that what generations of mamas have instinctually done to soothe a crying child to sleep really works — and not just on babies but on adults (and mice!), too. Yep, turns out mammalian brains are wired to respond to being rocked, and there’s now science to show that swaying to sleep may result in falling asleep faster, better quality of sleep and improved memory formation, too. Talk dirty to us, Current Biology!