There are many of us who like to listen to music in bed before going to sleep. Let’s face it, doing this helps us not only escape reality, but also block out outside noises, including a partner’s snoring (if that’s the case) or ambient noise from outside windows. But above all it is a time for reflection and reflection.

We have always believed it to be comforting. But we were wrong. Most neuroscientists agree that there are more negative effects than positive ones. It’s all about sleep hygiene.

Study. Several psychologists decided to investigate how involuntary musical images, known as auditory worms, could disrupt sleep. What are we talking about? When a song or melody is played over and over in a person’s mind. These “earworms” usually appear when you’re awake, but they’ve found that they can also appear while you’re trying to sleep.

A recent study published in the Journal of Psychological Science included a study of the experiences of 199 people who listened to music frequently and reported having “worms” in their ears at night and poorer sleep quality. In these studies, music before bed keeps the brain more awake at night, repeating the melody and reducing sleepiness. It is also interesting that instrumental music leads to worse sleep quality and causes twice as many “worms” than a song with lyrics.

Why? Why? “Optimal sleep hygiene would be to listen to nothing and let the mind and body relax naturally, because when you fall asleep, the sound of music can disrupt the healthy sleep stages our body goes through. Our brain and body must go through,” clinical sleep educator Lauri Leadley explained in this article. . So, if music is stimulating, it can affect the body’s ability to produce melatonin, which helps initiate and maintain sleep.

It seems that our brain continues to process music even while we sleep, while nothing is playing. Also, people who regularly experience earworms at night, one or more times a week, are six times more likely to have poor quality sleep than people who rarely experience this phenomenon.

What happens to your brain when you listen to a podcast? It turns out that podcasts and bedtime go hand in hand: More than half of the 6,000 people surveyed said they listen to a podcast to relax before bed, according to data from Edison Research. A study published in Nature concluded that listening to stories like podcasts activates many parts of your brain, including areas responsible for sensory processing, emotions and memory formation.

According to a sleep research theory called the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, your brain organizes all this data in a stage of sleep called slow-wave sleep. Imagine a group of neurons gathered around filing cabinets, working together to decide what information is new for the day and needs to be filed, and what information is already there and doesn’t need to be filed again. Then the neurons take a break. This creates long peaks and valleys of brain activity during this type of sleep.

Other “soothing” habits that interrupt sleep. Listening to music before bed isn’t actually the only “quiet” thing that interrupts our sleep. Eating or drinking at night can also interfere. Eating too much before bed while resting can have the effect of lowering your overall sleep quality by increasing your metabolism at night.

Similarly, alcohol can feel calming when ingested, but can disrupt sleep later on. Drinking regularly is not usually a good idea if you want to maintain good sleep habits.

The big enemy: screens. Also, using screens before bed can make your brain more alert and therefore harder to sleep soundly, says Alex Savy, sleep sciences coach at Sleeping Ocean.” They fall asleep longer and spend less time in REM sleep than those who read paper books.

sleep hygiene. It may seem silly, but sleep hygiene can give us an overall better quality of life. And there are some habits that can help us achieve this. For example, having a set schedule normalizes sleep as an important part of the day and gets your brain and body used to getting as much sleep as you need. You should also not overdo it with sweets. Dimming the lights can help produce more melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone.

Plus, experts advise that it’s often easier to focus on relaxation rather than making falling asleep a goal. Meditation, mindfulness, rhythmic breathing, and other techniques can put you in the right mindset for bed. So, if you can’t sleep after 20 minutes, get up and stretch, read or do something else to calm you down before trying again. Finally, it is advisable to limit activity in bed: to create a connection in your mind between sleeping and being in bed, it is better to use it only for sleeping, the only exception is sex.

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