SCIENCE / SUMMARY / SOUND AND MUSIC

Did listening to maqam music at home change sleep scores in menopausal women?

SINGLE STUDY · RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL ■■□□ low evidence: small, one centre; no blinding reported, no comparable listening for the control group

Who: Menopausal women aged 40 to 65 at a family medicine unit in Central Anatolia, Türkiye. Women with a psychiatric diagnosis, hormone therapy, sleep medication or hearing problems were excluded. 70 women were randomly split into two groups; 9 dropped out and 61 were analysed (30 music, 31 control). The trial ran from August to December 2022 and was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05545761).
What they did: For five weeks the music group listened to pieces chosen by the researchers and freely available on YouTube: Hüseyni maqam in the morning and Zirgüle maqam at night, about 15 minutes per session, two sessions a day, 70 sessions in total. Listening took place at home, in a quiet room, with headphones; adherence was checked via WhatsApp. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Beck Depression Inventory and Menopause Rating Scale were completed at the start and end.
What they found: The sleep quality score fell from 9.43 to 6.23 in the music group and from 8.29 to 8.16 in the control group; the difference between groups at the end was significant (p = 0.006) (Table 3). The depression score fell from 13.13 to 7.50 in the music group while rising from 12.00 to 12.77 in the control group (p = 0.001). The total menopause symptom score fell from 15.97 to 12.40 in the music group and rose from 14.74 to 16.00 in the control group (p = 0.011) (Table 2); there was no difference between groups in urinary and genital symptoms.
Limits: As the authors note: being one centre, the results cannot be extended to all menopausal women; some participants said the headphones were uncomfortable. From our own reading: no blinding is reported; all outcomes are self reported; the control group received no listening or similar attention; the 9 dropouts were not analysed; at the start the music group's sleep score was worse (9.43 and 8.29, p = 0.062), which may explain part of the fall; there was no follow up beyond five weeks. No funding was received and no conflicts of interest were declared.

What does this mean for you?

This study describes evening music listening going together with better sleep scores in some menopausal women; it is a small study, so the result is not definitive. If a sleep problem lasts, its cause is something to discuss with a doctor. This is not advice.

Link to Nefesly: One of the reasons Nefesly offers sounds and music to listen to while falling asleep. It is not a health claim for the sounds in Nefesly; the setup in this study (selected pieces, headphones, a five week programme) differs from how the app is used. How we built it (Turkish)
Reference: Ugurlu M, Şahin MV, Oktem OH. The effect of music on menopausal symptoms, sleep quality, and depression: a randomized controlled trial. Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira. 2024;70(2):e20230829. doi:10.1590/1806-9282.20230829 · Open access (CC BY 4.0).
Why chosen: One of 15 sources chosen from 603 candidates on the sound, music and listening axis; among Turkish studies, its home listening with headphones and participants without illness come closest to a home user.
Summarised by: Nefesly, from the full text, 11 October 2026. Awaiting clinician check.
Copyright: Summarised from the full text, not translated from the abstract.