Motivations for Using Music for Sleep

Traditionally, sleep music is viewed as being soft, calm, and with minimal pitch and dynamic changes. However, recent research has shown that this is not necessarily the case. This variation could be due to people’s various motivations for using music to help them sleep, such as improving one’s mood, distracting oneself, or relaxing. To investigate the link between sleep music motivations and musical characteristics, we analyzed the YouTube comments from two types of YouTube sleep music: single-tracks and compilation-tracks. There were significantly more sleep terms for calm single-tracks than for energetic single-tracks. For compilations-tracks, sleep- and relaxation-related comments were associated with having no melody, slower tempo, fewer than five instruments, and a repetitive structure. Conversely, distraction- and mood- related comments were linked to music with higher dynamic variation and more than five instruments. This suggests that the type of music chosen for sleep varies based on individual motivations. While calm music aligns with relaxation, more energetic music could suit those seeking distraction or mood regulation, highlighting the importance of considering listener motivation in sleep-related music interventions.