SEATTLE—The recent development of “brain music therapy” offers hope for an effective non-pharmacological therapy for insomniacs. Brain music therapy establishes “the most effective rhythmic and tonal parameters, creating meditative conditions in patients by influencing brain neurophysiology,” said Leonid Kayumov, PhD, Director of the Sleep Research Clinic at Toronto Western Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kayumov and colleagues reported their evaluation of the safety and efficacy of brain music therapy in anxious insomniacs at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

THE BRAIN-MUSIC COMPILER

The experiment was conducted using a “brain-sound compiler” that transformed 16-channel EEG traces into music. There were 18 different transformation logarithms, he added, that provided a selection from 120 musical instruments for each channel. The brain-sound compiler is capable of creating changes in tempo, varying the volume of each channel, transposing the music of each channel to different octaves, changing musical parameters (eg, legato or staccato), adding major and minor chords, and analyzing the note patterns of each channel. EEG patterns for each patient were converted into unique music (called “endogenous brain music”) that was recorded on a compact disc.

Eighteen people participated in the study. The experimental group included 10 insomniacs who received compact discs of endogenous brain music. The placebo group was composed of eight insomniacs who received compact discs with the brain music of a different patient. Exclusion criteria included severe neurologic and/or psychiatric disorders, primary sleep disorders, drug or alcohol abuse, use of medications known to affect sleep or melatonin production, and being left-handed.

“Left-handed people were excluded from the study for the sake of the purity of the experiment,” Dr. Kayumov explained. “There is research evidence that left-handed and right-handed people have different brain structures responsible for music recognition and processing. Interestingly, in professionally trained musicians, the brain mechanisms are similar regardless of whether they are left- or right-handed,” he noted.

Listening instructions for the participants were specific to each individual. “Most of the anxious insomniacs had problems maintaining their sleep,” Dr. Kayumov said. “However, a few of them also had difficulties initiating sleep. Based on their primary complaint, the patients were instructed to use music prior to sleep or, in the case of intervening awakenings, during these episodes.”

MORPHEAN MUSIC

Four-week use of brain music reduced symptoms of anxiety and insomnia, as evidenced by subjective and objective measures obtained from the Athens Insomnia Scale and actigraphy, Dr. Kayumov reported. There were no significant differences between experimental and control groups with respect to the subjective variables. “Both authentic music and placebo music were helpful.” Dr. Kayumov added, “However, what makes a difference is that the objective parameters—actigraphic variables—were significantly improved only in the experimental patients who were listening to the authentic brain music. Thus, the effects of ‘soothing sounds’ could not be detected on the objective level, implying that individualized brain music has intrinsic healing properties which are superior if compared to what is available in the market of ‘regular relaxation music.’ ”

Dr. Kayumov observed that “there were practically no side effects of the brain music during the whole period of treatment, except for one patient who complained of odd sounds which he found to be annoying—yet he acknowledged that [the treatment] was still helpful.” Brain music therapy is a useful alternative for treatment of insomnia in anxious patients, Dr. Kayumov concluded. When asked for his opinion on brain music therapy as an adjunct to pharmacologic interventions, he remarked that while his group had not formally investigated that aspect of their therapy, there were clinical cases documenting that patients who were using brain music were able to reduce the dosage of the anxiolytics. “This might open a new perspective in many [pharmacologic] treatment modalities with respect to possible addictive effects, withdrawal, tolerance, etc. Certainly, it is an interesting research topic,” he said.

—C. Justin Romano

Suggested Reading
Bhattacharya J, Petsche H. Musicians and the gamma band: a secret affair? Neuroreport. 2001;12:371-374.

Levin YaI. “Brain music” in the treatment of patients with insomnia. Neurosci Behav Physiol. 1998;28:330-335.

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