With
MFTS.com's latest music offering, “Lyrical Imagery,” which is
designed to support stress management and relaxation and sleep, I
want this post to explain in detail how we can use music listening to
be an effective sleep aid to promote and support relaxation and to
encourage the use of music as part of one's sleep ritual – for
children and adults. I have said in the past that when we us music to
aid in health and wellness, a great thing is, there are no side
effects. Before I get started I want to remind us that my previous
three blog posts have talked about the research and rationale of
“Lyrical Imagery,” i.e., why it was written, how music affects
us, etc. Also, visit musicfromthestart.com for the free download of
“Lyrical Imagery.”
This
subject of using music listening for relaxation and sleep has been
talked about and researched for years, for ex, "Music Improves Sleep Quality in Students" and "Music Enhances Sleep in Preschool Children"
To
get started I want to first mention two important keys that optimize
the use of music for sleep, they are 1) that the person chooses their
favorite music, or preferred music and 2) that once the music is
decided on, that music should be listened to every night as part of a sleep ritual, thus developing a conditioned response.
What
is a conditioned response? A conditioned response is an unconscious physical or
emotional reaction to a stimulus. For our purposes
here... if I use the Lyrical Imagery music (or any music) every bed time to fall
asleep to, after a short while I will start
to associate relaxation and sleep with that specific music. That is a
conditioned response. Another common example is when someone in the
summer starts to use a fan at bed time... Again, after a short time,
because the fan drowns out noise or the air movement is comforting,
whatever, they also start to associate relaxation and sleep with the fan... using it even in the winter.
When
we choose music that we like, that we have positive associations to,
music can be a positive diversion from negative thoughts and
stressors. Used in this manner we get to the point where our favorite,
preferred music played nightly, elicits the conditioned response
first, of relaxation, then sleep.
Also, because
we humans make associations so easily, wellness support modalities
such as music are good, as I said earlier, because there are no side
effects. And I'll add that music is something we essentially can use
as much as we want. Another aspect of music that makes it so
effective, mentioned in a previous post, it is that music is a
primary cognitive experience. What this means is that when we hear
music we have no control over the feeling and emotions it gives us.
All sensory experiences are like this. When we hear, see, smell, feel
and taste things, again, we have no control over the feeling and
emotions sensory experiences give us. For example... if we are in a
mall and a fragrance that reminds us of our grandmother gets our
attention, whether we want to think of our grandmother or not, we
will think of her. We can not control the thoughts that come about
due to the sensory experience. Primary cognitive experience equals conditioned response.
To
summarize, when we choose our favorite music (preferred music), and
listen to that preferred music every night, we start to associate
that music with sleep and comfort, i.e., a conditioned response.
My prescription this
week??? Again, grab the free download of "Lyrical Imagery" or choose
another favorite CD, artist or style, play that music every night and pleasantly relax as you go to sleep with your favorite music... Ahh
