Sound significantly influences your sleep quality — positively or negatively — depending on the scenario. Here are examples of each:

Negative impact: Recent studies have shown that environmental noise (especially cars, city or transportation sounds) can decrease your deep and REM sleep while increasing your awake time. Those annoying extraneous noises keeping you up at night provoke a biological stress response in your body, which is detrimental to your sleep quality. As a result, those who sleep in noisy environments are at greater risk of feeling groggy the next day, often experiencing mood changes, annoyance and decreased brain functioning.

A lack of sleep from sound disturbances at night has long-term health consequences, which is why using a pair of sleep headphones can be beneficial in this scenario. Canceling or blocking out those unwanted sounds can help you fall and stay asleep longer.

Positive impact: Listening to audio for sleep — particularly relaxing music or soundscapes — affects our brain and body. Soothing music can shift the focus in your brain from stress-inducing thoughts to a more relaxed state, which helps to lower your heart rate and blood pressure. This makes it easier to fall asleep.

When listening to music at around 60 beats per minute (the same as the average relaxed human heart), “entrainment” can occur when your body synchronizes with its environment (in this case, the beat of the song), which promotes relaxation.

It doesn’t have to be slow-tempo songs; listening to any music you enjoy can release dopamine in the brain, promoting pleasure and reducing stress and anxiety. Adding music or soothing soundscapes to your bedtime routine can be a great way to mask unwanted extraneous noises and train your body and brain that it’s time for sleep.