Listening to music is effective for depression-related sleep disturbances.

To study the efficacy of music intervention for depression-associated insomnia.

This two-armed randomized controlled trial (MUSTAFI) explored the effectiveness of music on insomnia, depression symptoms, and quality of life in people having depression-connected insomnia. Depression outpatients with insomnia (number of patients = 112) were randomly allocated into the intervention group and waitlist control group. People in the intervention group were asked to listen to music at the time for going to bed for 4 weeks period.

The study participants received standard therapy during 8 weeks with evaluations at baseline, at 4 weeks and 8 weeks. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was the preliminary outcome measure. Actigraphy (kind of wearable sleep test), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17, also called Ham-D) and World Health Organisation questionnaires (WHO-5, WHOQOL-BREF for quality of life) were the secondary outcome measures.

Quality of sleep and well-being considerably improved in people in the music group at 4 weeks based on the global PSQI scores (effect size = −2.1, 95% confidence interval (CI)−3.3; −0.9) and WHO-5 scores (effect size 8.4, 95% CI 2.7;14.0). The improvement in global PSQI scores was reduced at 8 weeks i.e. 4 weeks after the cessation of the music intervention. No changes were observed in Actigraphy sleep assessments and depressive symptoms.

The use of music is a safe and moderately effective intervention that promotes sleep in insomnia patients with depression.