Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 1998; 42(1) : 119-122

EFFECT OF THE KARNATIC MUSIC RAGA "NEELAMBARI"ON SLEEP ARCHITECTURE

BATMANABANE GITANJALI

Sleep Disorders Laboratory,Department of Pharmacology,Jawaharlal Institute of PostgraduateMedical Education & Research,Pondicherry - 605006

(Received on April 3, 1997)

Abstract: The raga Nelambari in the classical Indian Karnatic system ofmusic is said to be able to induce sleep and also have some sleep promotingqualities. This hypothesis was scientifically tested using sleeppolysomnography with eight healthy subjects who listened to eitherNeelambari (test) raga or Kalyani (control) raga. There was no differencein sleep architecture or in subjective feeling of quality of sleep. Theanecdotal references to the quality of sleep promoting effects of Neelambariprobably reflect a conditioned response since most lullabies in South Indiaare sung in Neelambari raga.

Key words: music

INTRODUCTION

Drinking a glass of milk, taking a warmbath, listening to music and reading a bookare some of the strategies which peopleresort to in order to induce sleep. In everycommunity the world over, children are putto sleep by singing lullabies. Relaxing musicis used to promote sleep in elderlyhospitalized patients in critical care units(1). In a community based study 96% of thesubjects showed improvement of sleeprelated problems when they listened tomusic just prior to bedtime (2).

Classical Indian Karnatic music hascodified the various ragas which are to be

sleep polysomnography

played at particular times of the day (3).Many ragas have a similar counterpart withdifferent names in the Hindustani style ofclassical music. These ragas are believed tohave properties which are known to evokecertain emotions. The raga Amirthavarshiniis said to bring forth rain, Punnagavaralito attract snakes, Neelambari to inducesleep and so on. Lullabies sung in thevillages of South India are based onNelambari raga. In most Hindu temples ofSouth India the presiding deity is lulled tosleep at night with this raga. Neelambari issaid to induce sleep quickly and alsopromote a more sound and relaxed state ofsleep. However, this has not beenscientifically proved so far. This experiment

*Corresponding Author

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was conceived with the aim of testingwhether the raga Neelambari has sleeppromoting effects and/or whether it altersthe sleep architecture of individuals. Thesubjective feelings on the quality of sleepproduced were also studied.

METHODS

Eight healthy male volunteers who hadno knowledge of classical Indian Karnaticmusic were selected as volunteers. Allagreed to spend three nights in the sleeplaboratory. They were not informed of theaim of the study but were told that theywould be volunteers for a study on sleeppatterns in healthy people. This was doneto prevent bias. Written consent wasobtained from all of them. All subjects wereasked to come two hours prior to their usualbedtime to the sleep laboratory. The firstnight was an acclimatization night wheresubjects slept with the electrodes on but norecording was done (4). On the second andthird nights either Neelambari raga orKalyani raga (used as a control) were playedfrom the time the subjects entered the labtill one hour and a half hours after lightsoff. The music was played in an adjacentroom and the volume adjusted so that itcould be heard clearly.

Sleep was monitored using acomputerized polysomnography system(Healthydyne International Technologies),throughout the night. Electronen-ceph al ogr ap hy (EEG), electrooculography(EO G), electromyography (EMG) andelectrocardiography (ECG) were used forstaging sleep. Selection of sites forplacement of electrodes and number ofelectrodes used were according to the

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standardized procedure for sleep studies (5).EEG electrodes were placed according to thestandards set by the American SleepDisorders Association. All sleep data wasstored on optical disks and scored manuallyby the investigator who was blind to theraga played on that night. Scoring was doneaccording to the Reschtaffen and Kalesmanual (6) for scoring sleep records. Anepoch by epoch scoring method was followedwith an epoch length of thirty seconds. Sleeponset was taken as the first epoch of stagetwo sleep when there was continuous periodof sleep for four minutes. Sleep onsetlatency is the time from lights out to sleeponset. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) latencyis the elapsed time from sleep onset to thefirst epoch of REM sleep.

Subjects were asked to fill out aquestionnaire regarding the quality of sleepin the morning after the study. This alsoincluded a four point scale ranging fromzero (did not sleep at all) to three (sleptextremely well). Slept fairly poorly (one) andslept pretty well (two) were the other twopoints on the scale. At the end of the threenights they were asked to state theirpreferences on the type of music they liketo hear and also whether they could identifythe raga played. Subjects were also askedto record whether they felt refreshed in themorning after the study. They had toindicate whether they received any formaltraining in Indian classical music. At theend of the study, subjects were told of theaim of the study and asked to guess whichnight they heard Neelambari. Statisticalanalysis was done using a software package"Statistix". Paired Student's "t" test wasused to compare both groups. A probabilityvalue of p:s; 0.05 was considered significant.

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RESULTS

The mean age (range) of the volunteerswas 32 (26-60) years. All subjects said theyliked listening to music with all but onepreferring to listen to Indian light music.Western classical music was enjoyed by onlyone person. None of them had received anyformal training in Karnatic music andtherefore they could not identify either ofthe ragas. The results show that there isno significant difference between the twogroups (Table I) for any of the sleepvariables studied. The sleep efficiency (S.D)was 78.84% (18.24) for Neelambari and82.19% (11.38) for the Kalyani night. Therewas no statistically significant differencebetween the two. In the morning after thestudy all subjects admitted feeling refreshedafter all the three nights. The averagerating score for quality of sleep was 2.12for both nights. When asked to guess whichnight they heard Neelambari two volunteersrefused to answer and out of the remainingsix three guessed correctly.

TABLE I : Sleep polysomnography variables ofhealthy subjects after listening to'Neelambari Raga.

Variables Control Neelambari(minutes) (minutes)

Total sleep 347.7±50.43 33Ll±75.91timeREM time 64.69±35.31 54.12±30.79Non REM time 279.4±42.72 273.9±58.26SWS time 49.19±22.92 39.25±22.91Sleep onset 19.81±1l.66 25.12±20.96latencyREM onset 1l1.O±58.95 100.2±55.29latency

All values are mean ± SD of eight subjects.

Total sleep time is the time spent in REM sleep andNon REM sleep. Slow wave sleep (SWS) time is thetotal time spent in Stage 3 & 4 Non REM sleep.

Effect of Music on Sleep 121

DISCUSSION

There are many stories in Indian folkloredescribing the mystical properties of ragas.This study proves that the raga Neelambaridoes not induce sleep or alter any sleepparameter when compared to the controlraga. There was no difference in the qualityof sleep and sense of refreshment felt thenext day. The anecdotal information on theability of this raga to induce sleep isprobably linked to persons who are alreadybiased, due to knowledge of Karnatic musicor who have been exposed to this raga inchildhood as a part of the sleep timeactivity. In this study none of the subjectshad prior knowledge of the aim of the studyand also did not know classical Karnaticmusic. Hence they were completelyunbiased. A full night polysomnographywithout any music being played wasconsidered unnecessary as the study did notaim to prove the effect of music per se onsleep onset or sleep architecture, but aimedat the effect of the specific raga(Nee lambari) on sleep architecture. Kalyaniraga was chosen as the control raga since itwas crucial that the control raga not havesoporific qualities or evoke feelings ofsadness, anger etc. This raga is not knownto have sleep inducing or preventingcharacteristics and hence was chosen as thecontrol raga in this study.

Studies comparing the effects of musicand white noise on sleep have proved thateven in Stage 1 NonREM sleep entirephysiological consciousness may be higherwhen listening to music than white noise(7). It was thought that the mental settowards the two differed. Human sleepstudies have also proven that there are EEG

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power spectrum component changesassociated with the relaxant effects ofpleasant music (8). These changes may also.be personality trait related. Persons whohave been lulled to sleep in childhoodwith a lullaby sung in Neelambarimay respond In a positive manner.Repeating this study with a test groupcomprising of such subjects who havelistened to Neelambari as a part of their

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sleep activity in childhood may throw somemore light on this aspect.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks Dr. P. Athiyaman,Programme Executive, All India Radio,Pondicherry for his help in procuring theaudio cassettes and the artists for renderingthe music played for the study.

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