Lullabies and beyond: music for sleep in Term 3

A common topic of conversation during exam season tends to be sleep schedules; both how important sleep is and how difficult it’s going to be to get a decent amount over the coming weeks due to stress and deadlines. But in searching for the best way to ensure we do get a decent amount of sleep, does music have any bearing? Science by and large doesn’t provide evidence against the idea, in fact it goes as far as to suggest that music works wonders in calming the human mind.

Like many things to do with sleep – all of which can be personal – different music will work for different people, and listening to music isn’t going to work for everyone. Some need total silence in order to sleep, and others can fall asleep under any and all circumstances. For myself, nothing works better than the music of Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, particularly their albums Design your Universe and The Quantum Enigma – both of which, in a good way, are exactly as pretentious and overblown as they sound. They help me sleep not because they are dull, but because they provide a certain level of steady intensity which I find myself able to slip into with little effort.

I do appreciate that this is entirely preferential; most people wouldn’t find Dutch symphonic metal to be restful as much as it would give them an existential crisis. The example of Epica leads only to one natural conclusion; music can be unexpected in its effects, and the right remedy for you may not always be the most foreseeable.But anything that doesn’t vary too heavily in its tempo should be somewhat useful, and may work a whole lot better than the traditional options.

Having said this, conventional choices are often made for good reason, and tend to come in a few different forms. Classical music often proves popular the same way it works as a study aid; a wall of sound which is melodic, calming and, most importantly, powerful. Examples include ‘Venus’ by Holst, Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ (1st movement) and Bach’s ‘Prelude No. 2’. If you want music to knock you out cold based on boredom alone, then Yanni’s album If I Could Tell You is the epitome of numbing echoes as an effective relaxant.

Anything that can be considered New Age may work just as well, its background music being an adequate remedy for sleeplessness. And Spotify is always a helping hand in these terms: just a few clicks away, the available compilations work on similar principles – soft-sounding instruments such as acoustic guitars, keyboards and strings (rarely percussion) as well as the repetition of motifs throughout a track allow us to drift off gradually. The aim here is not so much to captivate as to enter an undisturbed state of mind, exploiting the uniformity of its tone for our purposes. Though rarely proving enjoyable outside of this context, certain types of sleep music do appear more interesting during daylight hours.

If you find yourself looking for yet another alternative, then cover artist Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star comes highly recommended. If you were ever sent to sleep by the serene melodies of a music box you will be reasonably acquainted with this sound, though the artist puts a twist on what is already familiar. The music they cover is of every kind you could imagine, with examples from pretty much every pop star to metal bands like Iron Maiden, and musicals like Hamilton. Unmistakeably Twinkle Twinkle, these stripped-down covers of your favourite songs will put you in the perfect mood to send you to sleep. If this fails, then they at least might make for the ideal introduction to your favourite artists for future generations during infancy, making young ones crave these melodies in later life.

But first, it’s always important to ensure that you do everything else required for good sleep. This includes avoiding looking at a screen extensively before going to sleep, a healthy eating schedule and taking time to de-stress. Music cannot guarantee you better sleep, but by exhausting the various options you may discover tracks which work to relax us in so many contexts. Music is all about finding a better state of mind in order to focus – a means for us to fall into a safer, less stressful place.