Recording of mother's voice more effective than smoke alarm, study finds

Sleeping children three times more likely to wake to voice recording than to loud beeping, research finds

It's every parent's worst nightmare: there's a fire in the house, the alarms are beeping, but the children are sleeping on oblivious. Now scientists say they have found a better way to rouse slumbering youngsters.

Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of their mother's voice is about three times more likely to wake them than a traditional alarm. What's more, it does so faster and is linked to a quicker escape.