Author: Dan Garisto / Source: Science News for Students
Smoke alarms are painfully loud. They’re supposed to be, so that you can’t ignore them. Yet plenty of people — especially kids — will sleep through an alarm’s screeching noise.
When the smoke is caused by fire, sleeping through that racket could prove deadly. That’s why researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, have been testing new types of alarms that few kids sleep through. These rouse kids using their mom’s voice.Kids who heard their mother’s voice in an alarm woke up in around two seconds. It took them only about 20 seconds more to take a pre-arranged escape route. Those who heard the standard smoke alarm often took over two minutes to rouse and nearly five minutes to escape. In a real fire, that extra time could spell the difference between life and death, the researchers say.
Sleep is a uniquely vulnerable time. Half of all fire deaths occur during the night. Knowing which alarms work best can save lives, says Mark Splaingard. He’s a doctor who took part in the new research.
One night in 1998, Splaingard treated three kids with severe burns. He was puzzled because their house had a functioning alarm, but it hadn’t woken the kids up. Within a few years, Splaingard began research to solve the problem.
First, he thought about what sounds kids might respond to most. Two possibilities stuck out: their names and their mom’s voice. People pick out their own names more easily than other sounds. Other research has shown that newborns only a day or two old can recognize their mom’s voice.
In 2006, Splaingard’s team did a small study of 24 kids. The researchers found some evidence that both a mother’s voice and the use of a first name mattered in waking kids up. But that wasn’t enough evidence to change practices. So the researchers conducted another study.
This time, the team tested…
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