Music for Sleep and Wake-Up: An Empirical Study

Abstract

In this paper, we present our study on investigating the effect of music for sleep induction and wake-up. Unlike existing studies that mostly focused on understanding how specific types of music affect sleep for insomnia patients or older people in laboratory conditions, we aim to study the effect of pop music with respect to the musical features on both sleep and wake-up of young adults without serious sleep disorder in the real-world environment. We conduct two extensive experiments, for which we carefully design a system consisting of hardware and software components for reliable data collection. Our analysis focuses on what types of musical features are effective for fast sleep induction and wake-up. Furthermore, we present two application scenarios of sleep music recommendation based on our findings.

External Auditory Stimulation as a Non-Pharmacological Sleep Aid

“…Several studies have reported that listening to music alleviates sleep disturbance problems, including insomnia. It has been reported that listening to music reduces heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate and even reduces activity of the sympathetic nervous system [ 47 ]. To induce sleep, we primarily use slow, repetitive rhythms, which create a sense of safety and security that can prepare and elicit a sleep response in the brain [ 48 ].…”

The Effects of Music-listening on Human Concentration and Heart Rate?

“…In agreement, music can affect work efficiency and people's sleep quality if they choose the music they prefer. Ami [6] investigated how prescribed and preferred music influences sleep quality [7]. Their results showed no significant difference between the prescribed and preferred music groups.…”