Sound Verdict

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Can music help you sleep? What the trials test

Përditësuar 2 min leximi 14 citime

Four cassette tapes laid in a row showing different tape formulations by colour
Ferric, chrome and metal tapes needed different bias settings on the deck. Retired electrician · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Of all the health claims made for music, sleep is one of the most thoroughly tested. It has been studied at home, in hospital wards and in intensive care, in students and in older adults, which makes it a useful case for seeing what music as an intervention can and cannot do.

The strongest single source

Cochrane reviews are the most rigorous form of systematic review in medicine, and one has looked specifically at listening to music for insomnia in adults [7]. For a reader, that review is the best place to start: it pools the randomised trials rather than relying on any single study.

The populations that have been studied

Older adults. A systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effect of music therapy on sleep quality in older adults [9], and a 2026 network meta-analysis of randomised trials compared non-pharmacological interventions for sleep quality in older adults, music among them [2]. A network meta-analysis is useful here because it places music alongside alternatives rather than only against doing nothing.

Students. A randomised, assessor-blinded trial tested bedtime music therapy for college students with insomnia [12]. An assessor-blinded design means the people scoring outcomes did not know who had received the music.

Intensive care. A randomised controlled trial tested music and eye masks for sleep quality and delirium in intensive-care patients after abdominal surgery [11]. Because music and eye masks were tested together, that trial cannot isolate music's own contribution.

What the evidence covers

PopulationSettingStudy type
Adults with insomniaMostly homeCochrane systematic review
Older adultsCommunity and care settingsMeta-analysis; network meta-analysis
College students with insomniaHome or residenceRandomised, assessor-blinded trial
Post-surgical ICU patientsHospitalRandomised trial, music combined with eye masks

What kind of music?

Most sleep trials use relaxing or self-selected music rather than testing genres or tempos against each other, so the literature here does not support a specific playlist. The site's page on why music works covers the broader research on timbre and mood, which is the likely mechanism, but that link has not been tested directly in a sleep trial.

A worked example

Someone with occasional trouble falling asleep wants to try something before anything else. Music before bed is low-cost and low-risk, and it has been tested formally, which makes it a reasonable thing to try for a couple of weeks. It is not a substitute for looking at caffeine, light exposure or a possible sleep disorder, all of which our sister site Sleep Evidence covers.

Common questions

Does any type of music work?
Trials mostly use relaxing or self-chosen music. They do not establish that one genre is better than another.
Can music replace treatment for insomnia?
No. Persistent insomnia has specific, well-evidenced treatments, and a sleep disorder such as apnoea needs its own assessment.
Has it been tested in children?
The studies summarised here are in adults, including older adults and college students.
Why combine music with eye masks in the ICU trial?
Intensive care is noisy and bright, so the trial tested a practical bundle. That design is realistic, but it cannot say how much of the effect came from the music.
Thick early disc records stacked flat on top of one another
Edison discs were thick, played at 80 rpm and needed their own machines. Daniel Christensen at en.wikipedia · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The evidence behind this page A stacked bar showing the composition of the 14 publications cited on this page by study type. 1031meta-analysis (10)randomised trial (3)review (1)
14 publications, 2008–2026. That is a mix with both trials and syntheses in it, which is the position from which a claim about cause is reasonable. Source: this page’s own citation list, below.

Referencat

Çdo citim më poshtë lidhet me regjistrin origjinal të rishikuar nga kolegët në PubMed ose përmes DOI. Asgjë këtu nuk është një zëvendësim për këshillën mjekësore.

  1. Efficacy of Yoga Nidra in Managing Sleep Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Dutta A, Mooventhan A, Nivethitha L, et al. · Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2026 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 41144325
  2. Effects of non-pharmacological interventions on sleep quality in older adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials Song J, Dong H, Wang C, et al. · BMC medicine · 2026 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 41742230Full text
  3. Effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions in improving sleep quality after cardiac surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis Soh PQP, Wong WHT, Roy T, et al. · Journal of clinical nursing · 2024 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 38477050
  4. Effects of nonpharmacological interventions on sleep improvement and delirium prevention in critically ill patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis Kang J, Cho YS, Lee M, et al. · Australian critical care : official journal of the Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses · 2023 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 35718628
  5. The effectiveness of non-pharmacological sleep interventions for improving inpatient sleep in hospital: A systematic review and meta-analysis Beswick AD, Wylde V, Bertram W, et al. · Sleep medicine · 2023 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 37257367
  6. Different nursing interventions on sleep quality among critically ill patients: A systematic review and network meta-analysis Huang D, Li Y, Ye J, et al. · Medicine · 2023 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 38206715Full text
  7. Listening to music for insomnia in adults Jespersen KV, Pando-Naude V, Koenig J, et al. · The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 36000763Full text
  8. Non-pharmacological interventions for sleep promotion in hospitalized children Kudchadkar SR, Berger J, Patel R, et al. · The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 35703367Full text
  9. Effect of music therapy on improving sleep quality in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis Chen CT, Tung HH, Fang CJ, et al. · Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2021 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 33880759
  10. Non-pharmacological interventions for sleep promotion in the intensive care unit Hu RF, Jiang XY, Chen J, et al. · The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 26439374Full text
  11. The Effect of Music and Eye Masks on Sleep Quality and Delirium in Abdominal Surgery Intensive Care Patients: Randomized Controlled Trial Topal T, Sürme Y · Nursing in critical care · 2025 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 40459015Full text
  12. Bedtime music therapy for college students with insomnia: A randomized assessor-blinded controlled trial Yan D, Wu Y, Luo R, et al. · Sleep medicine · 2024 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 39053128
  13. Music improves sleep quality in students Harmat L, Takács J, Bódizs R · Journal of advanced nursing · 2008 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 18426457
  14. Effectiveness of music therapy for autism spectrum disorder, dementia, depression, insomnia and schizophrenia: update of systematic reviews Gassner L, Geretsegger M, Mayer-Ferbas J · European journal of public health · 2022 · Review DOIPubMed 34595510Full text

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