# Is Classical Music Part Of Your Sleep Hygiene?



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Do you have CM playing:

...as you are preparing for sleep?
...while lying in bed awaiting sleep onset?
...right through the night (or whenever it is that you sleep)?

Does it facilitate your sleep? Deeper? More rested? Shallower? Keeps you awake? Inhibits or enhances dreaming?

Do you listen to it actively or put it into the background?

Are there particular types of music that you prefer for sleep preparation and sleep? Should it be soft or as loud as usual?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

No. Classical music stimulates my brain and this is not a good idea before going to bed. That makes it harder to relax and fall asleep.

I want to be virtually brain dead before sleeping, so boring cable TV news is just what the doctor ordered.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

hpowders said:


> No. Classical music stimulates my brain and this is not a good idea before going to bed. That makes it harder to relax and fall asleep.


Exactly. The last thing I need when falling asleep is music


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

MY SO spends an hour before going to sleep chatting with friends and family on Facebook. And she wonders why she has trouble falling asleep.


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## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

To answer the OP : No. That said, I would be quite prepared to have CM playing while I lie on my deathbed, if I knew in advance that I had a couple of days or hours to go. But even there, no music at all if I have urgent paperwork to attend to.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Usually, I play baroque music on YT as I prepare for bed; and if I'm lying in bed ill, I like a bit of Lully. But I can't sleep to it.
In the morning, a good branle or other medieval dance gets me going.

There is, however, one type of music that I *can *sleep to.
Lately, I've been troubled with tinnitus. So I am not playing classical music near bedtime at all. I play a YT tape of 'water sounds and bird song' which enables me to ignore the tinnitus and drift off. At first, I thought it was unnatural to have birds singing their heart out at midnight, so I'd start with a YT tape of rain and thunder sounds. But the thunder bothered me. So now, it's the birds, and they really do help.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have periods when I do use classical music as part of my sleep regimen. Some of my best listening is in bed, after I finish reading, but I usually turn it off after the disc has played and I intend to go to sleep. Whether the music is active or relaxed seems to make no difference: I experience a stress-busting effect from it and my sleep quality seems to profit.

Occasionally, however, I have left the 5CD player on endless repeat through the whole night. My sleep was very shallow and unproductive. I know of people who leave radios or television sets on through the entire night and they claim it helps. It doesn't work for me.

I don't have tinnitus, but I've tried environmental sounds to help promote better sleep. I know what you mean about the thunder, Ingélou :lol: Rushing water doesn't work well for me, either. I think it would give me tinnitus  But birds really are very soothing. In the summertime, I enjoy hearing the birds early in the morning and the sound appears to help me get a few extra hours of quality sleep.


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## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

Ingélou said:


> [...] Lately, I've been troubled with *tinnitus*. So I am not playing classical music near bedtime at all. I play a YT tape of 'water sounds and bird song' which enables me to ignore the tinnitus and drift off. At first, I thought it was unnatural to have birds singing their heart out at midnight, so I'd start with a YT tape of rain and thunder sounds. But the thunder bothered me. So now, it's the birds, and they really do help.


Gosh, I'm really sorry to hear that, Ingélou. I can imagine that affliction - on holiday in July/August I got a very painful ear infection (otitis) with heavy discharge on the pillow and so on .... Anyway, I experienced hearing loss in that ear for a few days and all sorts of "pops" and "whistles". I was quite frankly horrified and despairing, with dark thoughts in my head. OK, it's all OK now, but you too are a musician so I can imagine how tough that must be. Must be tough for anyone, musician or not. Is it temporary? I hope so for you, I really do. Who wouldn't?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

That's very nice of you. Sympathies for your attack - shades of Beethoven. Mine is an electronic hum but during the day I don't hear it and it doesn't interfere with music, thank goodness. At night, though, it's pretty annoying - but the birdsong is getting me through it.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

No music just before bedtime. 
As Hpowders said, it makes the brain active and engaged. Me and my wife are a bit of nightowls so just after midnight it's time for an episode of no matter what on Netflix or HBO or regular TV (that is best for dozing of into deep sleep...) 
Until that time I play music while my wife reads. Don't know how she does it, reading and listening to music at the same time. Maybe it's true that men can't multitask......

Cheers,
Jos


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

No, I'm one of those people who needs quiet to fall asleep, so no music and no TV on.

That said, when I was in middle school and early high school, the local radio station would play full works at 10 PM sometimes and that was my bedtime, so sometimes I'd be in bed and listen to the work, but I never fell asleep during it.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I don't intentionally put on Classical Music to sleep, but sometimes when it's late at night I accidentally fall asleep when listening to classical music.

Then I wake up in the morning and scroll back through the randomized play list and think "Seriously! I unconsciously listened to an entire Wagner opera??"


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

violadude said:


> I don't intentionally put on Classical Music to sleep, but sometimes when it's late at night I accidentally fall asleep when listening to classical music.
> 
> Then I wake up in the morning and scroll back through the randomized play list and think "Seriously! I unconsciously listened to an entire Wagner opera??"


It's nourishing the little grey cells, anyway.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Sometimes I have music playing. But not to fall asleep to, but rather playing in the background as I get ready for work the next day, brush my teeth, do a few house chores etc.


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## DamoX (Sep 14, 2014)

Not for sleep because my brain enjoys CM in details and wants me to play another one.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Absolutely. But I don't choose pieces that excite or over-stimulate. I tend to go for Baroque, or quieter Classical or Romantic. I avoid symphonic forms and listen to chamber music. I avoid playing Bruckner or Wagner, and tend to play Corelli (Pastorale ad libitum) or Haydn ('London' Trios). Sometimes I listen to more modern music like Philip Glass' "Company". It really depends on my mood, but in general my tastes run in late evening toward the melencholy, at low volume. For really late night listening I tend to go for Ambient music or Nature sounds. Of course, being an insomniac helps. I can usually get by with four or five hours of sleep.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Nah, I get quiet.... sit in silence. And then I realize the cornucopia of contradictions inside of myself, and pass out.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I've had sleep suddenly overtake me when listening to music, and when waking up it's a bit like coming round after a general anaesthetic: I have no memory of having fallen asleep and yet hours have passed. Doesn't happen much these days, as the children get indignant at the thought of me going off duty!

Sad but true: last night I fell asleep clutching a picture of my favourite tenor. It was a fragile, yellowed programme for Les Huguenots from 1899 and should have been crushed in the process, but when I woke up this morning there it still was, uncreased and perfect. If this is the secret to sleeping soundly for once, I will have to get some photocopies made


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

I used to play the adagio of Beethoven's 9th - excellent music for sleeping with content. Also, Chopin's nocturnes are fine nocturnal music!


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Na, never, I find it much to distracting when trying to sleep! But that might well be my age talking as when I was a kid and all the way through my teens I had music running all night to help me sleep!

/ptr


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Never! If I'm sleepy, classical music will wake me up! I find it STIMULATING!

A boring sports event, small talk at a social event or cable news will put me to sleep.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I will, only when having trouble falling asleep, _play_ an organ piece in my brain - usually one that I have performed in concert at some point or another.

I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP device at night and the sound of the machine (very soft white noise) is usually sufficient _to put my lights out_ ... that and cuddling with the wife. :kiss:

Kh ♫


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Krummhorn said:


> I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP device at night and the sound of the machine (very soft white noise) is usually sufficient _to put my lights out_ ... that and cuddling with the wife. :kiss:
> 
> Kh ♫


Good for you! My Dad has sleep apnoea too, and Mum has banished him to the spare room  When she retires next year and no longer has to get up at 6am, he may be allowed back!


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

When I was single and living alone, one of my greatest pleasures was waking up to classical or opera music, so obviously I'm in the hpowders mould. Berlioz and Schumann Lovely morning music.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Any time you let any sort of audio run through the time you sleep (including whatever soundtrack comes along with video media like films or television), you are depriving your brain of the down-time it needs for the necessary deeper REM sleep, which "they" say is the only reason we need sleep at all, (i.e. the body could go on near indefinitely; it is the brain which needs the down time.) Using the terminology of the OP, letting sound run while you sleep is decidedly unhygienic.

I think "Music relaxes me" is often a mis-statement of the actuality, i.e. if a listener is concentrating upon a piece in this non-verbal medium, that distracts the mind from its usual inclination to 'think verbally,' on whatever thoughts which could keep one busy and awake, and in the listening to the music, one is either distracted from those thoughts, attention averted to the music, or it may fully 'turn off' that conscious verbal thoughts channel.

In instances where a person suffers from tinnitus, where there is no relief from sound, are better addressed when it comes to sleeping by the use of white noise -- similar to running water or the constant sine of white-water breakers on the ocean... the white noise wave spectrum so broad and 'fuzzy' it helps distract from or cancel out the more specific pitched 'ring' of tinnitus.

Most people are best of, for real rest and deepest sleep (allowing for REM / deep sleep, dreaming) in the dark, and in quietude.


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