Bedtime Music Can Disrupt Your Sleep By Triggering Earworms

By Emma Young Do you listen to quiet music to help you wind down before sleep? If you do, you’re following the advice of all kinds of organisations, including the US National Institutes of Health and the National Sleep Foundation. However, this advice could be counter-productive, according to a new study by Michael K. Scullin and colleagues at Baylor University. The work, published in Psychological Medicine, found that bedtime music was associated with more sleep disruptions — and that instrumental music is even worse than music with lyrics. In the first study, 199 online participants living in the US reported on their sleep quality and music listening frequency and timing, as well as their beliefs about how this affected their sleep. Almost all — 87% — believed that music improves sleep, or at least does not disrupt it. However, the team found that more overall time spent listening to music was associated with poorer sleep and daytime sleepiness. Just over three quarters of the participants also reported experiencing frequent “earworms” — having a song or tune “stuck” and replaying in their minds. A quarter reported experiencing these during the night at least once per week, and these people were (unsurprisingly) six times as likely to report poor sleep quality. The team’s analysis suggested that listening specifically to instrumental music near bedtime was linked to more sleep-related earworms and poorer sleep qua...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Music Sleep and dreaming Source Type: blogs