New Cochrane review: Music for insomnia in adults

Review question
This review assessed the effects of listening to music on insomnia in adults and the impact of factors that may influence the effect.

Background
Worldwide, millions of people experience insomnia. People can have difficulties getting to sleep, staying asleep or may experience poor sleep quality.

Poor sleep affects people’s physical and mental health. The consequences of poor sleep are costly, for both individuals and society. Many people listen to music to improve their sleep, but the effect of listening to music is unclear.

Study characteristics
We searched electronic databases and music therapy journals to identify relevant studies. We included six studies with a total of 314 participants. The studies compared the effect of listening to music alone or with standard care to standard care alone or no treatment. The studies examined the effect of listening to pre-recorded music daily, for 25 to 60 minutes, for a period of three days to five weeks.The evidence is current to 22 May 2015.

Key results
Five studies measured sleep quality. The findings suggest that listening to music can improve sleep quality. Only one study reported data on other aspects of sleep, including the length of time it takes to fall asleep, the amount of actual sleep someone gets, and the number of times people wake up. This study found no evidence to suggest that listening to music benefits these outcomes. None of the studies reported any negative side effects caused by listening to music.

Quality of the evidence
The quality of the evidence from the five studies that examined sleep quality was moderate. The quality of evidence for the other aspects of sleep was low. More high quality research is needed to investigate and establish the effect of listening to music on other aspects of sleep than sleep quality and on relevant daytime measures.