How To Improve Sleep? Listen To This Type Of Music, Experts Say

Improving your sleep could be just one Ed Sheeran song away. Music has been discovered to have many health benefits and has even been used for therapy, but experts say it could also be the key to solving sleep problems.

Music, particularly the soothing and relaxing kind, can improve sleep by triggering the release of sleep-friendly hormones such as oxytocin and serotonin and lower sleep-stifling hormones like cortisol, according to Psychology Today.

Aside from this, listening to this type of songs and music pieces can lower heart rate and blood pressure, slow breathing, ease muscle tension, quiet the nervous system and reduce stress and anxiety. Basically, it takes away factors that keep you from getting a good night's sleep.

If your thoughts are keeping you up until very late at night, listening to music before going to bed could help you fall asleep faster. Another analysis revealed that music therapy could help those with sleep disorders, whether short-term or chronic. Having a daily routine of listening to music before sleeping will also be a good thing in the long run since the study showed that the therapeutic effect of music is strengthened if you do it more often.

But improving your sleep with the help of music doesn't only involve the physical part of your body. Music can also help alleviate your sleep problems by influencing your mood and lowering stress. Emotional, mental and psychological issues such as depression, anxiety and other disorders are often linked to sleep problems, including insomnia, according to The Sleep Doctor. Easing your anxiety and improving your mood with the help of music would go a long way in helping you sleep faster and better at night.

Studies, usually conducted in patients undergoing surgery and other medical treatments, have shown that listening to music can help ease anxiety. It's even proven to be better than prescription drugs. Based on a University of Kansas research, music can also reduce anxiety and improve the sleep of people who have gone through traumatic experiences, whether physical or emotional.

Research conducted to find out the effects of relaxing music on people with schizophrenia has also shown that this helped improve their depression and sleep. The same goes for people living with post-traumatic stress disorder, as per numerous studies.

But music isn't only beneficial for patients, they can also solve some problems experienced by healthy adults. Studies have shown that listening to music can ease the feelings of anxiety and reduce the physical symptoms that come with it. These include elevated blood pressure and heart rate and nervous system arousal.

As for how exactly you can use music to help improve your sleep, Psychology Today's Dr. Michael Breus suggested choosing songs that have a rhythm of 60 to 80 beats per minute and preferably have no lyrics. Also, avoid songs that can cause emotional triggers, such as breakup tunes that could make you cry or feel overwhelmed.

One key factor for its success in improving sleep is consistency. Research suggests that the more you listen to music regularly, the stronger is its therapeutic effect. But make sure not to fall asleep wearing earbuds or headphones because these may damage your ear canal.

Will you start listening to music every night to help improve your sleep? Find out more about the effects of music here.