This Free Playlist is Designed to Help You Sleep
Music can help you sleep – Author Anne Erickson, Photo credit: Emma – The Sleep Company © Katya Abramkina
If you’re having a difficult time sleeping, maybe you should put on some tunes. It’s true. For many years, experts have been saying that the right mix of music can actually help you sleep. I’ve certainly fallen asleep listening to music, and then, sometimes my dreams have even mirrored that music, as wild as that sounds. Now, mattress brand Emma has released an album that has been composed just to help lull you to sleep. Listen to the playlist below.
Music Can Help You Sleep – Experts Weigh In
There’s actual evidence that music can help you sleep. In a review paper published via The Carlat Report, Jesse Koskey, an expert psychiatrist in the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, discovered that listening to music actually reduces the overall effects of insomnia. It can also improve that sleep quality once you fall asleep and helps to get you into the initial stages of sleep. What’s even more interesting is that the effect was similar to when someone takes prescription sleep medications, like Z-drugs and benzodiazepines.
Of course, certain music helps lull you to sleep over others. In the review, Koskey stated that slower-tempo songs can possible create an effect called “entrainment,” which is when your body synchronizes with your environment or another person. An example is walking alongside a friend and starting to walk into step with them. That same thing can happen with relaxing music. Listening to relaxing music can cause your body to, well, relax.
The study found that music around 60 beats per minute (bpm) can cause entrain in your nervous system, creating a slower, more relaxed heart rate. Also, 60 bpm is the rate of a relaxed heart. So, why not slow things down the next time you get in bed? You could end up with a deeper, more restful night.
This Free Playlist Could Help You Sleep
Mattress company Emma has released “Scores of Sleep, Vol. 1,” an album that’s supposed to help you go to sleep. It totally makes sense for a mattress company to do this, and I’m here for it. They did some research and looked at a study exploring the characteristics of sleep-promoting music. Then, they also teamed up with composer Torben Bruggemann to make a series of original songs that would make for the perfect bedtime music. It’s “sleep music, carefully curated to support better rest for listeners,” according to a press release.
Related: Can these songs help you lose weight?
During a press conference to release “Scores of Sleep, Vol. 1,” sleep researcher Angela Kondinska gave some scientific introduction about the power of music in aiding a good night’s sleep. She said that one in three people regularly struggle with falling asleep. She added that “that music serves as a powerful tool to aid sleep, being effective, easily accessible, and devoid of undesirable side effects unlike medication or alcohol,” according to a release.
Now, you can give it a try. I’ve embedded the Spotify playlist for “Scores of Sleep, Vol. 1” below. Simply stream this playlist, and hopefully you’ll get a better overnight rest. I tried it last night and slept like a baby. So, as it turns out, perhaps music can help you sleep after all.
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