Does music help you fall asleep?
For many people, it seems to. A Cochrane review published in 2022 looked at trials of adults with insomnia who listened to music at bedtime, and concluded that music may improve how well they felt they slept, compared with no treatment or usual care. The evidence was less clear on how quickly people fell asleep or how often they woke during the night.
The music in most of those studies had a few things in common: it was calm, mostly instrumental, and played for a limited time before sleep rather than all night.
What kind of music helps
- Slow. A gentle tempo - often described as roughly 60 to 80 beats per minute, close to a resting heart rate - is the usual recommendation.
- Instrumental. Lyrics invite you to follow the words, which keeps the mind engaged.
- Familiar and predictable. Nothing that surprises: no sudden loud passages, no sharp changes in mood. This is one reason soft piano versions of well-known melodies, like carols, work well late in the evening.
- Quiet. Just loud enough to hear clearly while lying still.
Why it should not play all night
Music helps with the transition into sleep. Once you are asleep, it has done its job, and continuing has drawbacks. Sound keeps reaching the brain during sleep, and changes in it - a louder passage, the gap between tracks, a new song starting - can nudge a light sleeper back towards waking without them remembering it.
The same applies to a television left on. The light from a screen changes with every scene and the sound changes with every track. Neither is restful for hours on end.
Why a fade-out beats an abrupt stop
Most people have had the experience of being woken by sudden silence: the music or TV cuts off and the change itself is enough to pull you back. A gradual fade-out avoids that. The sound lowers over a short period, there is no single moment of change, and if you are already asleep you do not notice it ending.
The screen is worth handling the same way. If the picture goes dark after the music has faded, the room becomes quiet and dark without anything suddenly switching off.
Choosing the timer length
- 15 minutes if you usually fall asleep quickly.
- 30 minutes is a good default for most people.
- 60 to 90 minutes for longer evenings - dozing on the sofa after a big dinner, or reading by the tree before bed.
If you often wake up with the music still playing, the timer is too long. If it often ends while you are still awake and listening, make it longer. A week of adjusting usually finds the right setting.
Small things that help
- Lower the TV brightness well before bed, or choose a dim scene.
- Set the volume once, while lying down, rather than from across the room.
- Set the timer before you get comfortable, not when you are already half asleep.
- Keep the same routine every night. The music becomes a signal that it is time to sleep.