Listening to music before bed may improve sleep quality for family caregivers of advanced cancer patients

The multicenter trial randomly assigned 76 caregivers (38 per group) to either listen to individually selected music for 30 minutes before bed for 7 days, or listen to pre-recorded nursing education messages. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the standard tool in sleep research. The music group showed a clinically meaningful improvement: their PSQI Global Score changed by only +0.60 points (improvement, since lower scores are better), versus +2.05 points in the control group (p = 0.006). Exploratory analyses also suggested benefits: subjective sleep duration increased by roughly 33 minutes in the music group (95% CI 0.19 to 0.94 hours), and daytime sleepiness scores improved by 2.74 points on the Epworth scale. Satisfaction was also higher in the music group (27.61 vs. 24.63 points on the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire). A key limitation is reliance on self-reported sleep quality; accelerometer data were collected but not detailed in the abstract.

The benefit size is modest but meaningful in the context of caregiver burnout: a 1.45-point difference on the PSQI Global Score represents a shift from worse to better sleep quality, especially valuable for people already sleep-deprived by caregiving duties. The fact that caregivers chose their own music—rather than listening to standardized playlists—may matter; personal preference likely increases adherence and engagement. Secondary findings hint at both subjective sleep duration gains and reduced daytime sleepiness, though the confidence interval for sleep duration just barely crosses zero, suggesting the signal is exploratory. The study was only 7 days, so durability beyond one week is unknown. The control group listened to nursing education, not silence or sham music, which is a reasonably rigorous control but doesn't rule out a placebo effect or the mere act of taking 30 minutes to oneself before bed.