For those of you that know us at thrae, you’ll know that we’re big on all aspects of sleep! Falling asleep, staying asleep, quality of sleep and length of sleep are all things we try to work on to be our best selves. So, we’ve delved into a bit of research on the positive effect that calming or low beat per minute music can have on your sleep.
We love research on natural remedies to help sleep problems and there’s a significant amount of this research that points to it being as effective as medications like sleeping tablets, without any of the potential side effects of taking such medications.
On top of the effectiveness of CBT-I therapy and sleep hygiene (click here to view our previous blog on this subject), music can also play a role in helping you get to sleep. Playlist’s found on Spotify and Apple Music often feature low beat per minute (slow) music. This utilises an effect on our bodies called ‘entrainment’.
Entrainment is when your body synchronises with either another person or the environment that you’re in. The same as when you fall into the same foot pattern as someone you’re running/walking with or when you adopt the same posture or mannerisms as someone you’re talking too. This entrainment can also happen with music.
Music that plays at a similar beats per minute to the average resting heart rate (60bpm) can help activate your parasympathetic nervous system, lower your heart rate and blood pressure, which can all assist in you creating a state in your body which is essential for naturally falling asleep and getting deep, restorative sleep. All different varieties of music have been studied and were surprisingly varied between people so it doesn’t take one particular type of song or style of music to be effective. Everything from relaxing classical music, ambience songs to songs picked out by participants like pop songs or video game themes were shown to be effective. The one thing they mostly had in common was a slow tempo, consistent rhythm and no lyrics. The one thing to avoid is choosing music that requires your phone screen to be on, such as a video, as this is not conducive to getting good sleep.
There was no one effective way to listen to music either. Some used headphones, some speakers and some listened for a small amount of time, while others listened all night. Experiment and see what works for you as these studies show that it’s not necessarily about following a particular set of rules as opposed to just finding out what works best for you. White noise and ambient sound machines are also another effective alternative as they can drown out noises and become a valued part of your sleep routine. We definitely use a white noise machine in our bedroom and it works amazingly well for us.
As always, we would recommend consulting with your health professional about any serious sleep issues that you may be having as sleep problems can be a sign of a health issue that may need further attention.