Listening To Music Before Bed May Disrupt Sleep

A study measuring self-reported relaxation in groups with different objective levels of oxytocin release found that music increased oxytocin and accordingly levels of relaxation compared to control groups . Outside of clinical practice, music is frequently used to self-regulate mood and arousal as well as to decrease negative thoughts . Given the established links between stress and poor sleep, this research provides indicative evidence to suggest that music may be a powerful tool in the fight against sleep loss. In a typical study, people listen to relaxing tunes for about 45 minutes before they head off to bed. Several studies have found that the music’s tempo makes a difference. “Reputable studies find that music with a rhythm of about 60 beats a minute helps people fall asleep,” says Breus.

Listening to music before bed is not the only “calming” thing we do that may actually be disrupting our sleep. Here are some of the other habits sleep experts say to avoid or limit before bed. The outcomes of this study are especially relevant given how common earworms are. In a 2011 study of over 12,000 Finnish internet users, 89.2% of participants reported experiencing earworms at least once a week. Timing –This expresses the use of music to help in the process of monitoring sleep time. Internal –Utilized to describe instances when the target of the distraction is a subjective bodily or mental experience, this level 1 theme was made up of two level 2 subthemes.

Relaxing music triggers changes to the body and, in many ways, mimics a sleepy state. A slower heart rate, slower breathing, and lower blood pressure are all physiological changes that make the process of falling asleep and staying asleep possible. Music also has a soothing effect, helps tune out the thoughts, and eases stress and anxiety. Listening to music that relaxes you before bed is essentially helping your body to tune to sleep mode, both physically and psychologically. Our analysis indicated that music use was a significant predictor of PSQI score, with those using music less having higher PSQI scores, or lower sleep quality. It is notable that although our online survey focused on music for sleep, we found that only 62% of respondents reported using music for this purpose.

Diane Arkenstone, a contemporary new age music artist, has dozens of albums filled with relaxing, meditative music that’s designed to quiet the mind and release stress. Researchers have discovered that listening to music can lower anxiety significantly and can be even more effective than certain prescription drugs. Stress is unquestionably the most common challenge for people who struggle with sleep. Those who suffer from depression, anxiety, and any other mood disorder often struggle with sleep and may even have insomnia. Whatever makes you feel calm, soothed, relaxed, and puts your body and mind in a restful mode is the right choice for you.

This may be as part of a systematic regulation of a sleep hygiene routine, which is commonly utilized as a treatment option for individuals with insomnia . It was also reported that masking external sounds, which can often lead to poor sleep quality, was a significant motivation for using music during sleep. More generally, there is a larger variety in the reported motivations for selecting music during sleep than was expected based on the existing literature. Future research should take this diversity into account when studying music as a sleep intervention option.

Negative If these thoughts were negative, worrisome, or stressful in nature they were placed in this level 3 theme. Thoughts Similarly, this Piano Music theme was utilized when the person used the term ‘thoughts’ or its synonyms as the experience they wish to block. Silence This theme points to the use of music to fill a void of external sound. All participants provided specific online consent for their participation and had the right to withdraw at any time with no penalty.

However, the use of a white noise machine could help keep them relaxed and mask any noisy distractions that may wake them, potentially helping them sleep longer. A 2011 study found that listening to music reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol in patients undergoing surgery. Life’s worries can have a tendency to creep up at the most inopportune times, including bedtime. Tense thoughts can keep you up all hours of the night, and one of the ways music can help you sleep is by alleviating stress and allowing you to drift off to sleep.

Rich says he has no intention of making albums like the phlegmatic Offering to the Morning Fog for the rest of his career, even if it might be the most profitable path. “We need to express the full dynamic range of light and dark,” he says. “Just creating relaxing pablum is probably worse than doing nothing right now.” But regardless of what direction Rich takes his career, Offering to the Morning Fog will always be available to lull you to sleep. By the time Middleton released Sleep Better, a once-derided field was gaining legitimacy and sprawling in many directions. In the experimental wing, Basinski and Rich were suddenly being asked to perform sleep concerts for thousands of horizontal fans at major festivals like Le Guess Who in the Netherlands and Moogfest in North Carolina. In an era of experiential pop-ups and events, consumers were embracing the opportunity to pay $250 per ticket for the privilege of falling asleep to Max Richter’s Sleep.

The most common reason given for using music as a sleep aid was to ‘help fall asleep quicker’. 56.82% of participants who used music to help them sleep claimed they strongly agreed or agreed with this statement, and only 20.10% said they disagreed or strongly disagreed. This was followed by ‘reduction in time spent in bed before falling asleep’ (54.35%), and ‘increases sleep satisfaction’ (34.74%). Studies into music’s efficacy as a sleep aid have used subjective self-report measures and occasionally objective measures such as actigraphy and polysomnography. The majority have been conducted in clinical populations such as individuals with chronic insomnia or patients in hospital settings [28–30].

Comfort More specifically, this level 3 theme of relax covers occasions where the person used the term ‘comfort’ or its synonyms to describe the way music makes them feel. Mental —Classifications of this level 2 theme were applied to comments in which the person aims to improve their mental state in advance of sleep with the use of music. Regression tree predicting the frequency of music use as a sleep aid.