Listening to music before bed can affect your sleep by inducing long-lasting earworms

[Analogous]

A sleep lab study found that around one quarter of participants who listened to familiar songs before bedtime awoke during the night with the melody “stuck” in their heads. This spontaneous replaying of music in the mind — a phenomenon called an earworm — was associated with lower sleep quality. If you listen to music before bedtime, your brain continues processing the melody while you sleep, according to research published in the journal psychological science.

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I woke up with “Rocky Raccoon” playing inside my head. I was listening to it yesterday evening. (My brain has been playing this on repeat all night long?). Has this happened to you?

 

[devdutta]

Not sure if that thing happened to me ever. I was very used to listen songs past midnight but never encountered such a problem.

 

[msankadi]

I don't think it is specific to just music too... It happens to me with the games I play, books i read or sometimes tv series if I have watched too many seasons recently

 

[Hari Iyer]

It's rather the other way round to me. Not listening to music before bed cause me insomnia. This proves that such study should be thrown in the gutter.

 

[keith_correa]

I often listen to music before going to bed but this has never affected me negatively or positively. Actually I have no clue whether it causes lowered sleep quality for me at all because once I sleep, I have no clue what happens. I'm still my grumpy self after I wake up - I am that way till I eat a full breakfast and drink my coffee and the family knows to keep away from me till that time is past. I've been this way for as long as I can remember.
And just because the study does not apply to me, it does not mean it is rubbish and should be discarded. All it means is that I'm not like the sampling of people studied - I'm different, and there's nothing wrong with the study or being different. The world is not based on me even though at times, my arrogance causes me to think that way!

 

[Kannan]

I often sleep with either the telly on, or the music playing.
There have been times when a passage in music or a scene is a movie linger on through my sleep, but mostly in a positive way.

An incident (good or nasty) either in recent memory or from the past can often ensconce in our dreams causing better sleep or even shudder us to wake-up. I have experienced this numerous times as I am a compulsive dreamer.

I may wake up to a good or sour mood depending on the sleep pattern, but most often than not, a hot cuppa like @keith_correa mentions so eloquently does uplift the mood.

The link @Analogous has provided though is very much plausible

 

[Analogous]

Not sure if that thing happened to me ever. I was very used to listen songs past midnight but never encountered such a problem.

Yes, it’s not very common it seems. The research says 25% experience this.
Also good to keep in mind it’s not peer reviewed or replicated elsewhere.
Anecdotally: I listen to music almost everyday and this ear worm phenomenon has only happened a few times that I can remember.
I shared it as I thought some might find it interesting.

 

[Nitin K]

Actually, its not only with music but also may happen in some cases where people watch movies before going to bed. It plays on your mind for a while. While some can blank them out others cannot .