Bedtime Music, Involuntary Musical Imagery, and Sleep. (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scullin, Michael K.; Gao, Chenlu; Fillmore, Paul
• Is Part Of: Psychological science. Volume 32:Number 7(2021)
• Page Start: 985
• Page End: 997
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: music cognition -- stuck-song syndrome -- involuntary memory -- slow-wave activity -- primary auditory cortex -- open data -- open materials; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797621989724
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0956-7976

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 ( N = 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 ( N = 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.