Effect of music of specific frequency upon the sleep architecture and electroencephalographic pattern of individuals with delayed sleep latency: A daytime nap study.

Introduction: Sleep is normal human behaviour. However, the stress in daily life leads to altered sleep behaviour like insomnia, parasomnia, etc. Owing to possible side effects, mind-body interventions like music, yoga and meditation could be a better alternative intervention to pharmacological interventions for the condition. It is known that 432 Hz music to have some effect on the overall sleep quality though some knowledge gap does exist. The present study aims to find the effects of 432 Hz on sleep quality and sleep latency in a daytime nap among subjects with history of delayed sleep latency.

Material And Method: Fifteen healthy male volunteers aged 18 to 40 years with history of delayed sleep latency were recruited for the study from a cohort of working staff and students at the institute, after due ethical clearance following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the subjects were subjected to sleep study with and without music intervention at the gap of 1 week. Sleep parameters recorded include sleep stages, electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyography (EMG), nasal airflow, thoracic movement, nasal saturation etc.

Result: Outcome of the study shows some decrease in the mean sleep latency ( > 0.05) with significant increase in the energy of alpha waves ( < 0.01) at the sleep onset.

Conclusion: It was concluded that 432 Hz music has some significant calming effect as reflected by increased alpha activities without any significant effect upon the sleep latency in the daytime naps.