Many people listen to music for hours every day, often near bedtime. We investigated whether music listening affects sleep, focusing on a rarely explored mechanism: involuntary musical imagery (earworms). In Study 1 (N = 199, mean age = 35.9 years), individuals who frequently listen to music reported persistent nighttime earworms, which were associated with worse sleep quality. In Study 2 (N = 50, mean age = 21.2 years), we randomly assigned each participant to listen to lyrical or instrumental-only versions of popular songs before bed in a laboratory, discovering that instrumental music increased the incidence of nighttime earworms and worsened polysomnography-measured sleep quality. In both studies, earworms were experienced during awakenings, suggesting that the sleeping brain continues to process musical melodies. Study 3 substantiated this possibility by showing a significant increase in frontal slow oscillation activity, a marker of sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Thus, some types of music can disrupt nighttime sleep by inducing long-lasting earworms that are perpetuated by spontaneous memory-reactivation processes.

许多人每天听音乐几个小时，通常是在临睡前。我们调查了听音乐是否会影响睡眠，重点关注一种很少探索的机制：不自觉的音乐意象（耳虫）。在研究 1（N = 199，平均年龄 = 35.9 岁）中，经常听音乐的人报告说持续存在夜间耳虫，这与睡眠质量较差有关。在研究 2 ( N= 50，平均年龄 = 21.2 岁），我们随机分配每位参与者在实验室睡前听抒情或纯器乐版本的流行歌曲，发现器乐增加夜间耳虫的发病率并恶化多导睡眠图测量的睡眠质量. 在这两项研究中，耳虫在醒来时都会出现，这表明睡眠中的大脑继续处理音乐旋律。研究 3 通过显示额叶慢速振荡活动显着增加证实了这种可能性，这是睡眠依赖性记忆巩固的标志。因此，某些类型的音乐可以通过诱导持久的耳虫来扰乱夜间睡眠，而耳虫由自发的记忆重新激活过程持续存在。