Participants who had a sleep earworm showed more slow oscillations during sleep, a marker of memory reactivation. But we saw that in both the survey and experimental study,” Scullin said. “We thought that people would have earworms at bedtime when they were trying to fall asleep, but we certainly didn’t know that people would report regularly waking up from sleep with an earworm. Memory consolidation is the process by which temporary memories are spontaneously reactivated during sleep and transformed into a more long-term form. People who caught an earworm had greater difficulty falling asleep, more nighttime awakenings, and spent more time in light stages of sleep.”Īdditionally, the researchers took EEG readings-records of electrical activity in the brain-to examine physiological markers of sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Then we analyzed whether that impacted their nighttime sleep physiology. Participants responded whether and when they experienced an earworm. “We randomly assigned participants to listen to the original versions of those songs or the de-lyricized instrumental versions of the songs. “Before bedtime, we played three popular and catchy songs-Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off,’ Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe,’ and Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’,” Scullin said. Polysomnography-a comprehensive test and the gold standard measurement for sleep-was used to record the participants’ brain waves, heart rate, breathing, and more while they slept. In the experimental study, 50 participants were brought into Scullin’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, where the research team attempted to induce earworms to determine how it affected sleep quality. The survey involved 209 participants who completed a series of questionnaires on sleep quality, music listening habits, and earworm frequency, including how often they experienced an earworm while trying to fall asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, and immediately upon waking in the morning. When that happens, chances are your sleep is going to suffer.”Īccording to the researchers, people who experience earworms regularly at night-one or more times per week-are six times more likely to have poor sleep quality compared to people who rarely experience earworms. Surprisingly, the study, which involved both a survey and a laboratory experiment, found that some instrumental music is more likely to lead to earworms and disrupt sleep quality than lyrical music. The more you listen to music, the more likely you are to catch an earworm that won’t go away at bedtime. But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Adolescents and young adults routinely listen to music near bedtime. “Everyone knows that music listening feels good. “Our brains continue to process music even when none is playing, including apparently while we are asleep,” said Michael Scullin, a sleep researcher at Baylor University and lead author on the article. New research published in the journal Psychological Science, however, reveals that earworms can sometimes interject themselves into our dreams, where they can negatively impact our quality of sleep. These persistent melodies, commonly called earworms, can be amusing distractions or intrusive annoyances.

Most people have had a song stuck in their heads at one time or another. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science.Psychological Science in the Public Interest.Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Lyrical music