A study published this week suggests that pop songs are just as likely to help you fall asleep as lullabies and classical music.
Rebecca Jane Scarratt of Aarhus University in Denmark and her colleagues analyzed 225,626 tracks from 985 playlists associated with sleep and identified several characteristics. Their findings were shared their findings in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.
“Even though sleep music in general is softer, slower, instrumental and more often played on acoustic instruments than other music, the music people use for sleep displays a large variation including music characterized by high energy and tempo,” the researchers wrote.
"Poor sleep is a growing problem in society and our study contributes to this field, by providing new knowledge on both the universality and diversity of sleep music characteristics that can help inform future music-interventions as well as bringing us a step closer to understanding how music is used to regulate emotions and arousal by millions of people in everyday life."
While sleep music “tends to be quieter and slower than other music” and typically lacks lyrics, the researchers found music that is louder and had a more energy – including the 2018 song “lovely” by Billie Eilish and Khalid, the 2020 BTS hit “Dynamite” and Labrinth's 2014 track "Jealous" – could help people relax and fall asleep because they are so familiar.
Previous studies have found that classical music was the most common genre for falling asleep.