Extolling the gift of aging, Dame Judi Dench recently said she wouldn’t change a thing for the smooth face and flat stomach of her youth. “Who cares if I decide to read or play on the computer until 4 a.m. and then sleep for who knows how long?”
Sometimes, however, you really just want to fall asleep, but it stubbornly eludes you. What then? “I listen to Classic FM,” she told broadcaster Zeb Sones. “Sometimes especially at night if I can’t sleep. Classic FM is my friend, neighbor, lover… you name it. I’m right there, listening to the radio.
Sounds charming. But it turns out that it’s also surprisingly well supported by science.
Why do women find it difficult to sleep?
Many women, especially after menopause, find it much more difficult to fall asleep than before.
As estrogen and progesterone levels decline, sleep often becomes lighter and more fragmented. Night sweats, hot flashes and waking up more frequently all play a role, while our body clocks naturally shift as we age.
The Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), which followed nearly 3,000 women over more than two decades, found that sleep quality and duration decline significantly during the menopausal transition. More than half of postmenopausal women experience sleep problems, making insomnia one of the most common complaints at this stage of life.
If you’re lying awake at 3 a.m. wondering if anyone is still counting down the minutes until morning, you’re not alone.
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Can listening to music really help you fall asleep?
Last year, a review of scientific studies concluded that: “Across studies, listening to music consistently reduced latency to fall asleep, increased sleep efficiency, and increased total sleep time.”
In other words, it reduced the time spent tossing and turning before you fell asleep and increased the percentage of time you actually spent sleeping in bed. Sleep efficiency is calculated by dividing total sleep time by total time in bed and then multiplying by 100. Experts consider a value between 85% and 90% to be optimal, while readings below 75% often signal insomnia or other sleep disorders.
However, pause before you line up for Metallica. There were some important caveats.
What Music Works Best
Not all music has the same effect.
Researchers have found that the greatest benefits come from music that:
- Slowly, about 60–80 beats per minute.
- Soft and gentle tone
- Simple, not very complex
- Instrumental, especially classical or ambient music
Sounds of nature and familiar music have also helped many people relax and fall asleep.
In other words, Dame Judy’s late night date with Classic FM makes a lot more sense than you think.
Why music helps us switch off
Of course, if your area is noisy, music will help mask the noise pollution. But that’s not all. Our brain also reacts physically.
According to the Sleep Foundation, listening to soothing music reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol while increasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. It also calms the autonomic nervous system, slows breathing, lowers heart rate and lowers blood pressure, which is the physiological state your body needs to fall asleep.
Four Ways to Make Judy’s Bedtime Trick Work for You
If you want to try this tonight, sleep experts recommend remembering a few simple rules:
- Choose slow music. Aim for 60 to 80 beats per minute.
- Keep it simple. Instrumental music or gentle classical pieces tend to outperform complex, energetic tracks.
- Choose something familiar. Music that accompanies happy memories can be especially soothing.
- Let someone else choose. Classic FM has several bedtime playlists, including a soothing Baby Bedtime collection if you don’t want to spend half an hour scrolling before bed.
Dame Judy herself had long loved Vaughan Williams. Lark risinga favorite piece by her late husband Michael Williams.
“I remember being at the Nottingham theater one day and going out with friends one day and stopping and lying in a cornfield and looking up and hearing the larks,” she told Zeb Soames. There is something to dream about.