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“Sleep well” – a common goodnight, but when your mind reels with the cares of the day, it’s more often easier said than done. We lie awake and think about tomorrow’s grocery list, our upcoming work agenda, and yesterday’s problems at home and in the work place. We tell ourselves, “Clear your mind” and so we lie awake and wonder “Is my mind clear yet?” and the question itself becomes another stressor that keeps us awake! Even when we finally do count that last sheep as it jumps the fence, often we don’t sleep well. We toss, we turn, and we awaken only to find that the sheep are out of the paddock again at 3 a.m.
Clinical studies prove that relaxing music is the key to keeping those sheep locked in the paddock and to locking away intrusive thoughts that keep you from sleeping. More importantly, relaxing music can help you sleep well.
How Do You Sleep?
There are two parts to how you sleep: the sleep cycle, which is the same in everybody and your sleep pattern, which is individual to you.
The Sleep Cycle
The sleep cycle is divided into five stages: drowsiness, light sleep, deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) and finally REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep, which first occurs about 90 minutes into sleep.
Drowsiness is the first stage in the sleep cycle and lasts from five to ten minutes. It’s the stage when body processes become less active in preparation for the deeper sleep stages 2 and 3.
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Light sleep is the second stage of the sleep cycle. During light sleep, muscles spontaneously flex and relax during light sleep, for example as we “doze off”, a twitch in your foot or jerk in your knee may momentarily awaken you during light sleep. Additionally, during light sleep, the heart rate drops and our body temperature decreases as it readies us to enter stages 3 and 4, deep sleep.
Deep sleep occurs during both stages 3 and 4 in the sleep cycle. The greatest difference between them is that stage 4 is more intense than stage three. These sleep stages are also known as delta sleep or slow-wave sleep.
The four stages before REM sleep are called Non-REM Sleep. Each of these short stages lasts from five to fifteen minutes. If you add up the numbers, the four stages of Non-REM sleep don’t add up to ninety minutes (the time it initially takes for REM Sleep to begin), but these four stages have an interesting pattern of repetition before REM sleep begins. Stages two and three repeat backwards so that the stages of the sleep cycle are 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, REM.
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REM sleep is the time during sleep when we dream. Peculiarly, when we “sleep well” our heart rate and respiration speeds up and even becomes erratic! Along with rapid eye movements, our faces, fingers, and legs twitch and move as we dream. However, most peculiarly, our major voluntary muscle groups, including those in the chin and neck, become paralyzed. Experts believe that paralysis occurs because our brains become very active during REM sleep and the paralysis keeps us from acting out the dreams that occur during this stage of heightened cerebral activity. The name paradoxical sleep is sometimes used to describe the REM sleep stage because of this mixture of brain excitement and physical immobility. The first period of REM sleep lasts for about 10 minutes and the final REM stage lasts for about an hour.
Sleep Patterns
Our sleep patterns are defined by how we, as individuals, advance through the stages of sleep; how long it takes us to get to sleep and how many times (or if) we awaken during sleep.
Although we often think of insomnia as an inability to fall asleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation, insomnia has four symptoms. Along with difficulty in falling asleep, those with insomnia wake up too early and are unable to get back to sleep, awaken often during sleep, and wake up feeling like they haven’t slept at all or at least knowing they haven’t slept well. Additionally, insomnia is a symptom of irregularities in our sleep patterns that interrupt normal sleep cycles and keep us from sleeping well. Along with disrupting our sleep, insomnia, whether chronic or occasional, puts our bodies out of rhythm during our waking hours. Not only can insomnia lead to physical and emotional illnesses, it also impacts our productivity, performance and overall well-being.
However, insomnia is a treatable disorder. Yet, while sleep medications are a popular treatment for insomnia and many sleep techniques may help you fall asleep, studies prove that listening to relaxing music is the natural way to combat insomnia and redevelop good sleep patterns that allow you to progress through the stages of sleep and sleep well all night long!
The Effect of Music on Sleep
| Normally, the sleep cycle repeats up to five times a night. Even with all their “refinements”, sleep medications can seriously alter the natural progression of stages during the sleep cycle and number of repetitions per night, resulting in the groggy feeling you experience on waking. Moreover, continued use of sleep medications can lead to dependency and discontinuing use of them, unless done gradually, can lead to rebound insomnia.
However, music has none of these side effects and can help you re-establish healthy sleep patterns.
Clinical studies completed in Taiwan, Canada, and the US repeatedly proved that music helps from 35% to 60% of those suffering from insomnia sleep better and longer. Experts suggest that we can use various types of music to help us attain sleep. In fact in an interview with BBC news online, Neil Stanley, the chairman of the British Sleep Society asserted, “Anything that’s relaxing and that pushes other noises, like traffic, out of your mind is going to help you sleep.”
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Clinical trials suggest that tribal chants and rhythms, nature sounds blended with music, and classical music are most successful in helping to lull us to sleep. However, one type of music is keyed to help your body regain its natural sleep patterns and rhythms as well as helping you fall asleep.
In an IRB (Institutional Review Board) sanctioned clinical study performed at The California Center for Sleep Disorders, zMusic proved to induce sleep 60% faster, extend sleep 30% longer, and increased daytime functioning by 55%. In addition, of those taking sleep medications prior to the study, 75% were able to replace them and regain healthy sleep with zMusic.
Since the completion of the study, zMusic has become the “gold standard” of sleep music therapy, used in hospitals and clinics as well as in American homes. In fact, zMusic quickly achieved popularity in 17 countries worldwide, gaining praise from several consumer health sources.
- Named #1 in the Women’s Health Magazine 2006 “The Nine Best New Health Products for Women”
- Awarded “The National Health & Wellness Club’s Seal of Approval” for effectiveness and value.
Unlike some other types of audio sleep aids, zMusic works in harmony with the natural brain waves of sleep with no hypnotic or subliminal messages. zMusic simply gives your mind the freedom to relax and go to sleep.
An additional benefit of zMusic is that you don’t need to get out of bed to treat insomnia if you should awaken during the night. Just flick on a switch, lie back and let zMusic lull you back to sleep.
zMusic is truly rhythm with reason - a natural way to regain healthy sleep patterns and begin to sleep.
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