Music is a composition of different melodies built together to soothe your soul. A piece of calming music is all you need when anxiousness hits you hard or a pop or rock style to satisfy your party mood. It improves your sleeping routine by calming parts of the autonomic nervous system, leading to slower breathing, lower heart rate, and reduced blood pressure.
Listening to good music while going to bed helps to stimulate the production of serotonin, a chemical produced in our brain to make us feel good. This results in having a pleasant mood, falling asleep, and staying asleep becomes much easier.
For music to soothe us on a biological level, the song needs to match with our resting heartbeat.
The song titled ‘Weightless’ is one of the songs produced by artist Marconi Union in collaboration with sound therapists. It is said to reduce anxiety by up to 65% that helps reduce insomnia and sleeplessness. There are many songs on the web similar to this which help fight insomnia.
Listening to music through earphones is also a great way to fight sleeplessness as it acts as a barrier and eliminates any annoying sound from outside, and all your attention would be on staying calm.
Earphones also come in handy to block out any annoying sounds. It helps you as well as the person around you to enjoy their time without disturbing the other.
But just like a coin having two sides, listening to these sounds also has its cons. It is not only uncomfortable to sleep with earphones on but there are other harmful effects of listening to music while sleeping as well.
If the music is too noisy, then it can damage your eardrum due to prolonged exposure. This may lead to hearing loss, and you might wake up irritated and cranky due to disturbed sleep.
Our ears continuously produce wax that protects our ear canal. However, excessive build-up of wax can be harmful. It clogs our ears and affects our hearing.
If you are wearing earbuds that sit a little more deeply in your ear, you might risk developing a build-up of ear wax in your ears. This is because the earbuds will block the air circulation around your ear, causing the wax to press more easily into your eardrum. If a lot of ear wax builds up over time, it might be tough to remove it without causing damage to your ears.
Necrosis refers to the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue. If your earbuds do not fit well, they will exert pressure on the skin inside your ear canal. The skin will start to wear away, and necrosis can happen.
A fear of strangulation also remains when we sleep with long cords attached to our ears. In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to death.
How to prevent these cons?
If possible replacing earphones with a phone speaker or an external Bluetooth speaker. Reducing the sound while listening with earphones, and try finding the best fit earphone bud for your ear.