Title | Bedtime Music, Involuntary Musical Imagery, and Sleep. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Authors | Scullin MK, Gao C, Fillmore P |
Journal | Psychol Sci |
Volume | 32 |
Issue | 7 |
Pagination | 985-997 |
Date Published | 2021 Jul |
ISSN | 1467-9280 |
Keywords | Adult, Auditory Perception, Humans, Memory, Memory Consolidation, Music, sleep, Young Adult |
Abstract | Many people listen to music for hours every day, often near bedtime. We investigated whether music listening affects sleep, focusing on a rarely explored mechanism: involuntary musical imagery (earworms). In Study 1 ( = 199, mean age = 35.9 years), individuals who frequently listen to music reported persistent nighttime earworms, which were associated with worse sleep quality. In Study 2 ( = 50, mean age = 21.2 years), we randomly assigned each participant to listen to lyrical or instrumental-only versions of popular songs before bed in a laboratory, discovering that instrumental music increased the incidence of nighttime earworms and worsened polysomnography-measured sleep quality. In both studies, earworms were experienced during awakenings, suggesting that the sleeping brain continues to process musical melodies. Study 3 substantiated this possibility by showing a significant increase in frontal slow oscillation activity, a marker of sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Thus, some types of music can disrupt nighttime sleep by inducing long-lasting earworms that are perpetuated by spontaneous memory-reactivation processes. |
DOI | 10.1177/0956797621989724 |
Alternate Journal | Psychol Sci |
PubMed ID | 34105416 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC8641138 |