Music listening has no positive or negative effects on sleep quality of normal sleepers: Results of a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of a music listening intervention on sleep quality in young participants with normal sleep. Recent studies show that relaxing classical music is an effective intervention to reduce sleep problems. The question arises, if such an intervention might have side effects on people who are not faced with sleep difficulties at first instance. We hypothesized that listening to relaxing classical music has an effect (either positive or negative) on the sleep quality of normal sleepers. To test this hypothesis we conducted a randomized control trial (RCT). Ten students (age 20 to 29 years) without sleep complaints listened to relaxing classical music at bedtime for three weeks for 45 minutes. Participants in the control group (n = 10) received no intervention. Sleep quality was measured at four times using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) before the study and weekly during the intervention period. To analyse the data, a two-way repeated measures ANOVA was calculated. Results did not reveal a statistically significant interaction between TIME and GROUP. Post-hoc comparisons showed that music listening has no influence on sleep quality at any given measuring time. However, the lack of significant effects may also be due to a type II error. Together with previous findings, we conclude that no adverse or side effects accompany the previously reported benefits of this music listening intervention. Further studies are needed to investigate the impact of music characteristics, musical preferences of participants and possible side effects of the intervention in different populations.

Keywords:

• music
• sleep
• side effects
• students