| Abstract |
Summary
Background: Insomnia is a disorder with significant world prevalence, leading to daily functions impairment, increased morbidity, and more rarely increased mortality. Classic treatments seem to have several limitations and low patient treatment adherence.
Aim: The aim of the present study is to present different kinds of music therapy and assess their effectiveness as an alternative complementary therapy for insomnia.
Methodology: A systematic review of clinical trials over the last 20 years will be conducted according to PRISMA. Research questions investigated in this review were: a) How music therapy affects in a positive way insomnia evolution? b) What methods of music therapy are used for insomnia improvement? Search was carried out in the databases of Pubmed, Scopus and Science Direct and Cochrane. Eligible articles were randomized controlled or clinical trials in English language, published from 2000 – 2020, including adults with insomnia diagnosis or presented with symptoms compatible with insomnia. The search words were music therapy, insomnia and sleep disorders.
Results: One hundred forty-eight (148) articles were detected from all 4 selected databases. After removing the duplicates, a list of 117 articles remained. Then, by analysing their title and summary, 87 were removed as non-relevant to the research question, while 4 were not accessible in full text. Finally, 26 articles remained fοr further analysis. Several musical genres have been used to treat insomnia such as soft, classical, Buddhist, binaural, traditional, organic, while studies took place in developed and developmental countries. Also, in several articles’music therapy is combined with the treatment of other psychological symptoms or diseases such as anxiety, stress and depression. However, very few studies use objective parameters of insomnia improvement with polysomnography or electroencephalogram, without showing significant results. Nevertheless, despite several limitations regarding the effect of music therapy on insomnia, it seems that music therapy has a positive role on insomnia, in subjective parameters such as sleep duration and sleep latency, evaluated by relevant questionnaires assessing quality of sleep.
Discussion: In conclusion, music, as a therapy option to improve insomnia has a positive role, despite many limitations in the studies assessed. The objective parameters from polysomnography do not seem to be affected by music therapy, while in many studies the subjective parameters improve. Further research is needed in order explore the role of music therapy on insomnia treatment.
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