Sleeping roughly constitutes a third of our lives yet not many put much care into it compared to being awake. The amount and quality of sleep we get each night has an enormous effect on us the next day. If you have a good sleep you will wake up feeling energized and ready to start the day. With a bad sleep you’ll barely be able to get out of bed and will be sluggish and tired most of the day. The former is obviously the desired option here and that is why it should be sought after. While there are many tactics and tools to get a better night of rest, there is one way in particular that is quite interesting. This is by using music to sleep better. It may sound strange and even slightly counter-intuitive but the facts are here and that’s what we’re going to show you today in this article.
So how does music help you sleep better? Well when we say music we don’t mean all music. Blasting rap and heavy metal all night is definitely not going to make you sleep like a baby, in fact the opposite will happen. High tempo genres like the ones mentioned earlier as well as music types such as house, dubstep, and rock and roll are great for getting energized like when you are going for a run. When you’re trying to go to sleep the last thing you want is to get energized. It is also favourable to use music without any kind of lyrics or vocals though some tracks with singing can also work. So what music works for getting a better night of rest? Ideally you want music with a tempo of 60-80BPM along with being relaxing and calming. A few genres that fit this are smooth jazz, classical, and zen music. These genres and others like it work because they typically are slow (60-80BPM), easy to listen to, are relaxing and generally have no vocals. So, this is the music you should be listening to if you want to have a great sleep, but what does it actually do? Here are four benefits to listening to the aforementioned music that get you a better sleep at night.
- Slows down your heart rate
One interesting finding the scientists and researchers have found is the effect of the tempo of music on your heart rate. High tempo genres such as hip-hop and rap have been shown to increase a listener’s heart beat. This in turn makes the listener more energized and alive which is why many people listen to it while doing a work-out and while running. With low tempo genres like classical and smooth jazz, it does the opposite. These music varieties gradually slow down your heart rate which in turn relaxes you. Due to being more relaxed, you can fall to sleep easier getting you much more sleep so that you can feel alive and happy the next day.
- Reduces stress
One reason many find it so hard to get a good amount of quality sleep is because they are stressed from what happened that day and/or what might happen tomorrow. Even if your body is relaxed and ready to fall asleep, when you are stressed your brain is wide awake making you unable to doze off. Using music however, you can become less stressed and finally get to sleep. Music has a tremendous effect on the brain and the different types and genres of music can produce different effects. One effect studies have shown on slow, calming music is that it can reduce stress and the amount of thoughts you have. Calming music puts you in a better headspace and gives you something to focus on rather than the stresses in your life. This naturally slows down brain activity and enables you to get to sleep faster and have better quality sleep as well.
- Releases sleep inducing hormones
While listening to slow music your body releases serotonin and oxytocin. These two hormones help you get to sleep faster as well as giving you more deep sleep. Not only does relaxing music release these sleep aiding hormones, but it also reduces hormones that negatively affect sleep. One example is cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone and as everyone knows stress ruins sleep. Cortisol also had a myriad of other downsides but luckily calming music can help reduce it. All in all, while listening to comforting music your body releases sleep aiding hormones such as serotonin and oxytocin and reduces the release of hormones bad for sleep such as cortisol.
- Makes you wake up less often
Waking up multiple times a night is unfortunately not a rare problem in the world’s population. Even if you get to sleep quickly and overall get a good amount of sleep, waking up throughout the night can make you feel drowsy and tired the next day. One surprising effect of playing relaxing, calming music at night is that it in fact makes you wake up less often. Waking up intermittently throughout the night is often overlooked as many cannot find a way to fix it and find the cause. When it comes to sleep, all the advice is generally about getting to sleep quicker which is definitely very important. However, waking during the night is not looked at very often so if this problem affects you play some soothing, slow music next time you go to sleep and see if it makes a difference. Even if you only wake up one less time it can make a big difference the next morning in terms of energy, happiness, productivity, and mood.
Overall, if you have any trouble with sleep including falling asleep, waking up at night or getting enough sleep, try playing some calming, soothing music while you doze off and see if you notice any difference. May it will help and little or maybe it will help a lot, but it’s worth a try and definitely doesn’t hurt to try. Playing slow music such as smooth jazz and classical while you go to sleep slows down your heart rate, reduces stress, induces sleep hormones and reduces sleep killing ones and makes you wake up more often. These effects will grant you a better night of rest no matter who you are and will make you feel refreshed and energized the next morning. When it comes to playing the actual music, you are going to want either earbuds or a speaker and being high quality should also be in your best interests. Luckily at Allinaudio we have a great range of audio equipment that will get you to sleep in no time. Not only are our products high quality, but they are also at a low cost as well. Poor audio equipment can definitely reduce the positive effects of music on sleep, so go high quality with Allinaudio and will without a doubt be satisfied.
