Increased Arousal Levels and Decreased Sleep by Brain Music in Rats

More and more studies have been reported on whether music and other types of auditory stimulation would improve the quality of sleep. Many of these studies have found significant results, but others argue that music is not significantly better than the tones or control conditions in improving sleep. For further understanding the relationship between music and sleep or music and arousal, the present study therefore examines the effects of brain music on sleep and arousal by means of biofeedback. The music is from the transformation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) of rats using an algorithm in the Chengdu Brain Music (CBM) system. When the brain music was played back to rats, EEG data were recorded to assess the efficacy of music to induce or improve sleep, or increase arousal levels by sleep staging, etc. Our results demonstrate that exposure to the brain music increases arousal levels and decreases sleep in rats, and the underlying mechanism of decreased non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep may be different.