Music has been called the 'purest form of art', but it's also used by many as a means to fall asleep more easily. But at present, science can tell us very little about the mechanisms behind sleep's role as a therapeutic sleep aid.

In today's episode we speak to Thomas Dickson, researcher, app creator and co-author of a recent review examining the existing scientific literature about the different ways music might help us with our sleep, including; relaxation, distraction, entrainment, masking, enjoyment and expectation. 

In a wide-ranging conversation we discuss how music differs to other audio formats like podcasts and white noise, how binaural beats work, why ACDC might be better to fall asleep to than Beethoven and lots more.

This Episode's Guest

Τhomas Dickson is a PhD student at the University of New South Wales, Australia, specialising in the use of music as a sleep aid. Thomas has combined music psychology research, and app development skills to build a world-first sleep app that composes relaxing music.

How Does Music Aid Sleep? Literature Review: http://bit.ly/2DA8g40

Can't Sleep App: https://cantsleepapp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-dickson-77012262/

UNSW Empirical Musicology Lab: http://bit.ly/2OFtOSZ

Episode Homepage: http://sleepjunkies.com/science-of-music-sleep/

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