Music and Sleep
A Scientific Perspective
- 1st Edition - June 1, 2026
- Latest edition
- Editors: Kira Vibe Jespersen, Björn Rasch
- Language: English
Music and Sleep: A Scientific Perspective presents a comprehensive discussion on the topic of music and sleep. The book brings these disciplines together, providing a solid backgr… Read more
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Description
Description
Music and Sleep: A Scientific Perspective presents a comprehensive discussion on the topic of music and sleep. The book brings these disciplines together, providing a solid background, recent developments, and a deeper understanding of their synthesis. Of special interest are technical advances that have made sleep recordings, music manipulation, and sleep stimulation more accessible in recent years. Notably, sleep disturbances are an increasing problem in society, highlighting the importance of developing low-risk and cost-effective treatments. Healthcare professionals looking to integrate novel information on music and sleep to increase their patients' wellbeing need look no further than this book.
Music is widely used as sleep aid, but the exact neural mechanisms of the sleep-enhancing function of music are not fully clear. New research output includes exciting breakthroughs, hypotheses, and discoveries in both of these areas. However, since research fields on the neuroscientific mechanisms of music and those of sleep have not traditionally overlapped, this book fills in the gaps.
Music is widely used as sleep aid, but the exact neural mechanisms of the sleep-enhancing function of music are not fully clear. New research output includes exciting breakthroughs, hypotheses, and discoveries in both of these areas. However, since research fields on the neuroscientific mechanisms of music and those of sleep have not traditionally overlapped, this book fills in the gaps.
Key features
Key features
- Elucidates on the most critical concepts, definitions, theories, neural mechanisms, and implications of music and sleep for overall health
- Focuses on the methods of using music to improve sleep for children, healthy participants, the elderly, and patients with sleep disorders
- Includes reviews and analyses of recent experimental findings from research, examining the extent to which music and sounds can be processed during sleep and the developmental changes and neural correlates of sleep
Readership
Readership
Researchers in basic sleep research, sleep medicine, music neuroscience, musicology, music technology, music therapy and psychology Graduate students in musicology, music technology, music therapy, psychology, cognitive science, medicine and neuroscience Clinicians in the fields of sleep medicine, psychology, psychiatry and music therapy
Table of contents
Table of contents
Section 1: A General Introduction to Music and Sleep
1. What is music?
2. Music and the brain
3. Music and Health
4. What is sleep?
5. Sleep and Health
6. Historical perspectives on music and sleep
Section 2: Music for Sleep
7. The ethnography of lullabies
8. Children and lullabies
9. The use of music as a sleep aid in the adult population
10. Music as a non-pharmacological sleep aid in the elderly
11. Clinical uses of music for sleep improvement
12. Sleep music - which music do people use for sleep
Section 3: Music During Sleep
13. Auditory perception during sleep
14. Perception of harmonic information during sleep and the influence of individual preference
15. Perception of sounds and speech in the prenatal stages and their effects on infants' sleep
16. The incorporation of sounds and music into dreams
17. Do Androids Dream of Euphonic Sleep?
Section 4: Sleep as Music
18. The hidden music of sleep patterns
19. The effects of sound stimulation on slow waves
20. Audio design interacting with sleep
21. Sleep sonification - the sound of sleep?
22. Sleep sonification in art projects
1. What is music?
2. Music and the brain
3. Music and Health
4. What is sleep?
5. Sleep and Health
6. Historical perspectives on music and sleep
Section 2: Music for Sleep
7. The ethnography of lullabies
8. Children and lullabies
9. The use of music as a sleep aid in the adult population
10. Music as a non-pharmacological sleep aid in the elderly
11. Clinical uses of music for sleep improvement
12. Sleep music - which music do people use for sleep
Section 3: Music During Sleep
13. Auditory perception during sleep
14. Perception of harmonic information during sleep and the influence of individual preference
15. Perception of sounds and speech in the prenatal stages and their effects on infants' sleep
16. The incorporation of sounds and music into dreams
17. Do Androids Dream of Euphonic Sleep?
Section 4: Sleep as Music
18. The hidden music of sleep patterns
19. The effects of sound stimulation on slow waves
20. Audio design interacting with sleep
21. Sleep sonification - the sound of sleep?
22. Sleep sonification in art projects
Product details
Product details
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: June 1, 2026
- Language: English
About the editors
About the editors
KJ
Kira Vibe Jespersen
Kira Vibe Jespersen is Associate Professor at Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University, Denmark. With a unique interdisciplinary background in psychology, neuroscience and music therapy, her research focuses on clinical applications of music with a particular interest in the effect of music on sleep and the use of music for insomnia. In her research, she evaluates both the effects of music interventions and the potential neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these effects. In addition, she is a trained musician.
Affiliations and expertise
Associate Professor, Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, DenmarkBR
Björn Rasch
Björn Rasch is Professor of Cognitive Biopsychology and Methods at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He has been actively involved in basic sleep research for over 25 years, and has published in leading scientific journals such as Science, Nature Neuroscience, PNAS and Physiological Reviews. He has edited and written several books on memory consolidation, hypnosis research and sleep.
His research focus is on sleep, cognition and health, and he has completed many studies involving the presentation of auditory stimuli during sleep. Recently, he has started conducting several studies on music processing during sleep. In addition, he is trained in music theory and is an active musician.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor of Cognitive Biopsychology and Methods, University of Fribourg, Switzerland