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Exploring the Features of Music That People Fall Asleep to

posted by janrinok on Sunday March 26 2023, @11:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the lullaby-and-good-night dept.
Science

hubie writes:

A new study has identified several characteristics typical of music associated with sleep, such as being quieter and slower than other music:

Many people say that they listen to music to help them fall asleep, raising the question of whether music chosen for this purpose shares certain universal characteristics. However, research on the characteristics of sleep music is limited, and prior studies have tended to be relatively small.

To better understand the characteristics of sleep music, Scarratt and colleagues analyzed 225,626 tracks from 985 playlists on Spotify that are associated with sleep. They used Spotify's API to compare the audio features of the sleep tracks to audio features of music from a dataset representing music in general.

This analysis showed that sleep music tends to be quieter and slower than other music. It also more often lacks lyrics and more often features acoustic instruments. However, despite these trends, the researchers found considerable diversity in the musical features of sleep music, identifying six distinct sub-categories.

Three of the sub-categories, including ambient music, align with the typical characteristics identified for sleep music.

However, music in the other three subcategories was louder and had a higher degree of energy than average sleep music. These tracks included several popular songs, including "Dynamite" by the band BTS, and "lovely (with Khalid)" by Billie Eilish and Khalid.

[...] Overall, this study suggests that there is no "one-size-fits-all" when it comes to the music people choose for sleep. The findings could help inform future development of music-based strategies to help people sleep.

So what's on your sleep playlist?

Journal Reference:
Rebecca Jane Scarratt, et al., The audio features of sleep music: Universal and subgroup characteristics [open], Plos One, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278813

Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 27 2023, @12:33AM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday March 27 2023, @12:33AM (#1298274)

    I fell asleep to the radio a few times, until I started recognizing advertising in my dreams... Don't need that.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2023, @12:52AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2023, @12:52AM (#1298279)

      Alternative: I often fall asleep to the BBC World Service. Comes on my FM local public radio station after 10pm...no commercials. Just very calm soothing voices describing all the horrifying events of the day(grin).

      There's a 1 hour sleep button on the old clock radio, so it doesn't run all night. Hooked up to a high quality mini speaker it sounds quite good at low volume.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2023, @06:37AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2023, @06:37AM (#1298304)

    The ASMR

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2023, @06:55AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2023, @06:55AM (#1298309)
      That should be a separate study with different funding.

      You can't have all your "progress" at one go y'know. Otherwise how are researchers going to get fed and sheltered till past retirement age?

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday March 27 2023, @10:39AM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Monday March 27 2023, @10:39AM (#1298320) Journal

    ...you get used to falling asleep 'needing something' to help you sleep, what do you do when that something is not available?

    I'd rather fall asleep 'normally': you always have 'normal wait who am i kidding I've got a severely autistic son who hates to sleep Fuck me fuck me fuck me ..........

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2023, @02:35AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2023, @02:35AM (#1298434)

      you get used to falling asleep 'needing something' to help you sleep, what do you do when that something is not available?

      I'd rather fall asleep 'normally'

      Assuming you'd rather fall asleep when things are quiet. Then your question back to you - what do you do when that quiet is not available?

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Monday March 27 2023, @03:13PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Monday March 27 2023, @03:13PM (#1298341) Homepage Journal

    I fall asleep in silence most nights. I turn off the HVAC and I can't hear the fridge compressor from upstairs.

    In the summer I'll leave a window open and hear passive night noises, mostly wind in my suburban home. When I'm camping it is mostly wind noise depending on the season and temperature. If I'm on an aeroplane, I put in earplugs to dampen the engine noise.

  • (Score: 2) by xorsyst on Tuesday March 28 2023, @01:07PM

    by xorsyst (1372) on Tuesday March 28 2023, @01:07PM (#1298487)

    All that matters is that the music is familiar, so the brain doesn't have to process new information. I find prog metal works well for me, if I need anything. There's no way you could describe that as quiet or repetitive.

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