Have you ever found yourself wide awake in the middle of the night, trying your hardest to sleep? Do you feel time pass you by until you somehow manage to squeeze in some rest before the sun rises? Are there some nights where, despite your best efforts, it takes you an unimaginable amount of time to fall asleep?
If these situations seem all too familiar, you’re not alone. Over a third of Canadians, and 51 percent of people worldwide, don’t get the amount of sleep recommended by most experts. The little sleep they do get is lower in quality. On a regular basis, we are bombarded with the notion that sleep is a waste of time, especially if we hope to become successful. We’ve reached a point where society no longer prioritizes rest as much as it once did. As a result, we are now facing a serious public health issue that has gone unnoticed for far too long: sleep loss.
The general consensus of research from around the world is that inadequate sleep can result in serious health issues. Chronic sleep loss has been associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, compromised immune function, mood disturbance, deterioration in cognitive abilities, and significantly worse workplace productivity. Almost half of the world’s sleep-deprived individuals make more mistakes at work, or miss work altogether. It’s evident that sleep loss can have far-reaching consequences that impact us on both individual and societal levels. The key to rebuilding a healthy, happy, and efficient world is a good night’s rest.
The lack of sleep has also made individuals dependent on sleep-inducing medication, which can be a problem in and of itself. Conventional sleep aids include medications such as benzodiazepines and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics. They work by enhancing the brain’s response to GABA, a small messenger that our brain uses to ease the transition into sleep. However, they can also have very serious side effects including next-day drowsiness, dangerous interactions with other medications, amnesia, vision problems, and heightened risk of depression. Due to these risks, these drugs are, at most, just temporary solutions. At a time when there are very few safe options available to people with sleep loss, one potential therapy shows promise: music.
In one study, researchers investigating music’s use as a sleep aid surveyed the general public using an online questionnaire. They asked participants about their sleep habits, whether they used music to fall asleep, and why they believed that certain music worked for them. Music was found to be an effective sleep aid for the majority of respondents, and listening to music prior to sleep was strongly correlated with better sleep quality. Interestingly, there were over a dozen different genres listened to and reasons for their success varied across participants. According to the researchers, self-selected music has the greatest potential to affect our ability to sleep.
Music has been shown to improve sleep duration and quality in people with insomnia as well as other acute and chronic sleep disorders, more than other currently available treatments. Its strength as a sleep aid is seen across all age groups, from schoolchildren and young adults to adults and seniors. Across the board, listening to music is associated with better sleep. Although classical music is typically associated with being lulled to sleep, Beethoven is not always necessary. What matters is choosing music that you believe will help you sleep. We’ve used lullabies to soothe young children into sleep for hundreds of years, but who says they’re just for babies?
Given its success in other therapies, the positive effects of music should be transferable to sleep. Music can alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, and reduce pain after surgery as well. It may even help lower blood pressure and heart rate following operations. Music therapy is already being implemented in some hospitals, as it’s effective in supporting motor therapy in stroke patients.
From a neurological perspective, music and sleep are both well known for their effects on brain activity and the neurotransmitters that they share. For instance, serotonin is involved in inducing sleep, and listening to music increases serotonin release. It makes sense then for there to be a deeply ingrained relationship between music and sleep.
Music is a freely accessible and much safer option to help people enjoy the benefits of high quality sleep. So, the next time you find yourself struggling to sleep, stop counting sheep and try listening to some music to wind down, relax, and drift off into a good night’s sleep.
By Pallavi Mathur
Please note that opinions expressed are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page.
