From Cara Murez
HealthDay reporter
MONDAY, June 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) – New research suggests that pre-bedtime music that is supposed to help you sleep might actually have the opposite effect.
It turns out that “catchy tunes,” those catchy pieces of a composition that can get stuck in a person’s head, can also interfere with a person’s dreams, affecting the ability to fall asleep and sleep.
“Our brains continue to process music even when no music is playing, even when we seem to be sleeping,” says study author Michael Scullin, sleep researcher at Baylor University in Houston.
“Everyone knows that listening to music feels good. Teens and young adults regularly listen to music before bed. But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, ”said Scullin. “The more you listen to music, the more likely you are to catch a catchy tune that won’t go away before bed. If that happens, your sleep will likely suffer.”
The survey included 209 participants. They completed a series of questionnaires on sleep quality, music listening habits and earwig frequency. Questions include how many times a catchy tune has occurred while falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, and waking up in the morning.
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Then 50 of the participants came to Scullin’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory in Baylor, where the research team tried inducing earwigs to see how they affected sleep quality. The researchers recorded the participants’ brain waves, heart rate, breathing, and more while they slept.
The researchers also took EEG measurements – records of electrical activity in the brain – to examine physiological markers of sleep-related memory consolidation. Memory consolidation is the process by which temporary memories are spontaneously reactivated during sleep and converted into a longer-term form.
The researchers played three catchy songs, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” and Journeys “Don’t Stop Believin ‘, and randomly assigned participants to the original versions of those songs or instrumental versions of . listen to the songs.
The participants reported whether and when they had a catchy tune. Then the researchers analyzed whether that affected their sleep. People who got a catchy tune had more trouble falling asleep, woke up more often at night, and spent more time in light sleep.
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The study found that people with stronger music listening habits had persistent catchy tunes and deterioration in sleep quality. These results are in contrast to the idea of music as a hypnotic, which the study suggests could help people fall asleep.
The results were published in the journal Psychological Science on June 9.
“Almost everyone thought that music improved their sleep, but we found that those who listened to more music slept worse,” Scullin said in an Association for Psychological Science press release. “What was really surprising was that instrumental music led to poorer sleep quality – instrumental music leads to about twice as many catchy tunes.”
To prevent music from negatively affecting sleep, Scullin recommends trying first to moderate your listening to music or to take occasional breaks if catchy tunes are bothering you. Avoid listening to music before bed.
Another way to get rid of a catchy tune is to do some mental exercise – focusing fully on a task, problem, or activity will help distract your brain from catchy tunes. Right before bed, Scullin recommends spending five to ten minutes writing a to-do list and jotting down thoughts, rather than engaging in a strenuous activity or something that would disturb your sleep, like watching television or video games .
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More information
The Kennedy Center has more about catchy tunes.
SOURCE: Association for Psychological Science, news release, June 9, 2021
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