Listening to yoga music at bedtime is good for the heart, says experts

According to the study which has been presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Munich, Germany have found anxiety levels fell significantly after participants listened to yoga music and rose after pop music or no music. People felt significantly more positive after the yoga music than after the pop music.


The research, carried out in India, included 149 healthy people who participated in three sessions on separate nights. The first was yoga (soothing or meditative) music before sleep at night, the second pop music with steady beats, and the third no music or silence before sleep.


At each session, heart rate variability was measured for five minutes before the music or silence started, for 10 minutes during the music/silence, and five minutes after it had stopped. In addition, anxiety levels were assessed before and after each session using the Goldberg Anxiety Scale. The level of positive feeling was subjectively measured after each session using a visual analogue scale.


Author Dr. Naresh Sen said, “We use music therapy in our hospital and in this study we showed that yoga music has a beneficial impact on heart rate variability before sleeping. Science may have not always agreed, but Indians have long believed in the power of various therapies other than medicines as a mode of treatment for ailments. This is a small study, and more research is needed on the cardiovascular effects of music interventions offered by a trained music therapist.”


Doctor Sen added, “But listening to soothing music before bedtime is a cheap and easy-to-implement therapy that cannot cause harm. The body’s heart rate changes as a normal response to being in fight or flight or rest and digest mode.”