New Indian research suggests that listening to yoga music before bedtime may be beneficial for heart health, as well as help reduce feelings of anxiety.
Carried out by researchers at HG SMS Hospital, Jaipur and presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress this week, the small-scale study set out to investigate how listening to soothing, meditative yoga music before bed could affect heart rate variability, which is the variation in time between each heartbeat.
The researchers recruited 149 healthy participants with an average age of 26 and asked them to take part in three different conditions on three separate nights: listening to yoga music before sleep, listening to pop music with steady beats before sleep, and no music or silence before sleep.
Heart rate variability was measured for five minutes before the music or silence started, for ten minutes during the music/silence, and again for five minutes after it had finished.
Participants' anxiety levels and positive feelings were also assessed before and after each session.
Researchers found that heart rate variability increased during the yoga music, decreased during the pop music, and did not significantly change during the silence, suggesting that listening to yoga music could have a beneficial effect on the heart, as low heart rate variability is associated with a 32-45% higher risk of experiencing a first cardiovascular event.
