Many people listen to music before falling asleep to help them relax. But that could affect the quality of sleep, shows a new study. According to this, earwigs can not only plague us when we are awake, but also keep our brain busy while we sleep. As a result, we wake up more often and spend more time in light sleep stages. The authors of the study therefore recommend avoiding music shortly before going to bed.
Music can soothe, relax, and distract us from heavy thoughts. Parents already sing lullabies to children, and many young people and adults let their favorite sounds accompany them to sleep. Previous studies have shown that music can reduce stress and help you fall asleep. But while some songs let us sleep peacefully, others haunt us through the night as catchy tunes. They keep us awake for a long time and sometimes still haunt us the next morning.
Sleep aid or guard?
Sleep researcher Michael Scullin from Baylor University in Texas has also observed this phenomenon in himself. Together with his team, he then examined how music before falling asleep and catchy tunes affect our sleep behavior. To do this, they first asked 199 people about their music listening habits and their sleep quality. The result: Those who often listened to music before falling asleep more often suffered from earwigs, which were also present when they woke up at night, and slept more poorly overall.
“Our brains process music even when it’s not playing, apparently also when we are sleeping,” says Scullin. “Many teenagers and young adults routinely listen to music before bed. But 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, there is a good chance that sleep will suffer. “
Earwigs disturb sleep
In order to better understand the role of earwigs in sleep, Scullin and his colleagues examined 50 people in the sleep laboratory in a further experiment. “Before going to bed, we played three popular and catchy songs for the test subjects: Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’, Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ and Journeys ‘Don’t Stop Believin’,” reports Scullin. Some of the participants were able to hear the original version of the pieces, while others were able to hear pure instrumental versions. While the subjects slept, the researchers measured their brain waves, heart rate and breathing and thus monitored the quality of sleep. “The participants stated whether and when they experienced a catchy tune. Then we analyzed whether that affected her nocturnal sleep physiology, ”explains Scullin.
The experiment confirmed the results of the survey: “People who had caught a catchy tune had greater difficulty falling asleep, woke up more at night and spent more time in the light sleep stages.” The EEG provides an explanation for the sleep-disrupting effects of earwigs. Measured values of the test subjects: Participants who had a catchy tune in their sleep showed more slow oscillations in the brain, a marker for the reactivation of the memory. In this process, temporary memories are spontaneously recalled during sleep and converted into longer-term forms. The slow oscillations in the primary auditory cortex – the region that is also activated by catchy tunes when awake – were particularly dominant.
Better not to have music for bedtime
“Almost everyone thought that music made better sleep, but we found that those who listened to more music slept worse,” says Scullin. “What was really surprising was that instrumental music led to poorer sleep quality – instrumental music leads to about twice as many catchy tunes.” However, the researchers only tested pop pieces with and without the accompanying text. It is unclear whether, for example, classical music or sounds composed especially for relaxation have similar effects.
Based on his own results, Scullin recommends avoiding music before bed to avoid the risk of catchy tunes. But even if you only think of one song, it can creep in as a catchy tune. “If you’ve often listened to music in bed, you often have associations when you fall asleep that can trigger a catchy tune in this context, even if you haven’t heard any music that evening,” says Scullin.
Source: Michael Scullin (Baylor University, Texas, USA) et al., Psychological Science, doi: 10.1177 / 0956797621989724