Effects of music videos on sleep quality in middle-aged and older adults with chronic insomnia: a randomized controlled trial

Listening to soothing music has been used as a complementary therapy to improve sleep quality. However, there is no empirical evidence for the effects of music videos (MVs) on sleep quality in adults with insomnia as assessed by polysomnography (PSG). In this randomized crossover controlled trial, we compared the effects of a peaceful Buddhist MV intervention to a usual-care control condition before bedtime on subjective and objective sleep quality in middle-aged and older adults with chronic insomnia. The study was conducted in a hospital's sleep laboratory. We randomly assigned 38 subjects, aged 50-75 years, to an MV/usual-care sequence or a usual-care/MV sequence. After pretest data collection, testing was held on two consecutive nights, with subjects participating in one condition each night according to their assigned sequence. Each intervention lasted 30 min. Sleep was assessed using PSG and self-report questionnaires. After controlling for baseline data, sleep-onset latency was significantly shorter by approximately 2 min in the MV condition than in the usual-care condition (p = .002). The MV intervention had no significant effects relative to the usual care on any other sleep parameters assessed by PSG or self-reported sleep quality. These results suggest that an MV intervention may be effective in promoting sleep. However, the effectiveness of a Buddhist MV on sleep needs further study to develop a culturally specific insomnia intervention. Our findings also suggest that an MV intervention can serve as another option for health care providers to improve sleep onset in people with insomnia.