Music and Sleep

Having difficulty sleeping can have a wide range of negative effects on your health. Therefore, it is something that should be taken seriously. For instance, lack of sleep can make you less safe behind the wheel and increases the long-term risk of medical conditions such as obesity and heart disease. Although medical sleep aids such as sleeping tablets may work quickly to help you sleep, they can have side effects and are not a healthy choice in the long term. Fortunately, there is a cheaper treatment for sleeplessness, which is not habitforming and has no negative side effects: music.

Music is more than something that is merely enjoyable to listen to. It has a direct effect on our nervous system and can help our body relax and prepare for sleep. Studies show that older adults fall asleep faster if they often listen to 45 minutes of relaxing music before bed. They also sleep longer, wake up less during the night and are happier with their sleep. In a similar way, when younger adults choose classical music over audiobooks and doing nothing before bed, they see the most amount of improvement in their sleep quality.

Feeling calmer while enjoying good music is not the result of your imagination. Music can actually slow down your heart rate and breathing, lower your blood pressure and may even help your muscles relax. These biological changes are similar to the ones that your body experiences when you’re falling asleep, which leads us to the conclusion that music is the perfect choice for most of us when we want to prepare to sleep.