Abstract

Approximately 40% of adult Canadians struggle with sleep impairments of some kind. As more people turn to non-medical treatments, such as music therapy and the use of music for sleep troubles, music therapists need to be prepared to help. This systematic literature review investigated, synthesized, and analyzed research concerning the impact of music therapy/music on sleep quality. In this study, 37 articles including 35 published in peer-reviewed journals and 2 Master’s theses were examined and categorized based on the type of study, the use of music therapy or music medicine, the geographic and cultural background, the population and sample size, the research design, the interventions used, the measurement tools used, the music delivery method, the intervention duration, frequency, and treatment period; the music selection rationale, and the results of the study. The analysis showed the studies: a) came from a variety of countries and fields; b) investigated a number of different populations, both clinical and non-clinical; and c) employed an array of measurement tools, music delivery methods, intervention durations, frequencies, and treatment periods, rationales for music choice for the interventions, and mixed results. Of the 37 studies, 33 (89.2%) showed a positive influence of music therapy/music on sleep quality, while 4 (10.8%) found no impact. Six articles reported that music therapy/music had more or equal impact on sleep quality compared to other treatments. These results demonstrated that further research needs to be done to find the most effective interventions for improving the sleep quality of different populations and to explore music therapists’ roles in the area of enhancing sleep quality.