Listening to Billie Eilish Might Help You Sleep More Than Whale Sounds
Billie Eilish performs onstage at The Kia Forum on December 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California.
New research shows that slow-paced, instrumental music may not help you get to sleep. In fact, you might want to try your favorite energetic song instead. Per a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE Wednesday (January 18), scientists say listening to your preferred music — even if it is energetic and has vocals — has better results in a more restful sleep compared to typical sleep sounds of rain and whale sounds.
Experts believe this is because there is no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to the kind of music people choose for sleep. In some cases, familiarity with the song may potentially aid relaxation. Kira Vibe Jespersen, an assistant professor at the Centre for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University in Denmark, said, “Our hypothesis is that familiarity with the music makes the music very predictable to the brain, and this predictability may enable sleep, despite the music being upbeat and energetic. We are currently working to test this hypothesis.”
For the study, Jespersen and her colleagues analyzed more than 200,000 tracks from nearly 1,000 playlists associated with sleep. Results showed these quieter and slower sleep tracks also included many songs with a higher degree of energy than the average sleep music. Songs like Billie Eilish and Khalid’s collaborative track “Lovely” and Korean boy band BTS’ “Dynamite” were among some of the featured tunes. Using this data, the researchers were able to identify six distinct sub-categories of music that people listen to for sleep.
Jespersen said of the findings, “I was surprised by the amount of variation in the music that people choose to listen to for sleep. I was expecting some degree of variation, but not that much.” She added that without any sleep data from the users, the team cannot be certain whether music with a higher degree of energy helps induce sleep, but added that consciously choosing music that helps with relaxation and masks external sounds can be beneficial. The researchers said their findings could “both inform the clinical use of music and advance our understanding of how music is used to regulate human behavior in everyday life.”
Billie Eilish's 10 Best Music Videos
Billie Eilish has put out her fair share of music videos since 2016, starting with her breakthrough single, “Ocean Eyes.” Since then, the now 22-year-old singer-songwriter has created some of the most visually stunning videos any female artist her age has ever accomplished. Two of her music videos have received over 1 billion views on YouTube: her collaborative song “lovely” with Khalid and 2019’s hit, “bad guy.” She has 24 other music videos that have over 100 million views on the site alone.
Eilish’s first studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? released in 2019 as one of the best-selling albums of the year, which she received multiple Grammys for. The 14-song album featured such hits as “you should see me in a crown,” “all the good girls go to hell,” “bury a friend,” and “when the party’s over.” The following year, Eilish performed the theme song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name, which is arguably one of her most moving songs to date. By 2021, Billie released her second studio album, Happier Than Ever, which featured the song of the same name, as well as “my future,” “Your Power,” and “NDA.”
As we previously reported, the musician thought her career was over before she got a big break in 2023 with the Barbie film soundtrack. Before she and her frequent collaborator and brother FINNEAS penned “What Was I Made For?”, Eilish was honestly concerned about her music career. “I was honestly like, ‘Damn, maybe I hit my peak, and I don’t know how to write anymore?’” she said during The Hollywood Reporter‘s songwriter roundtable in November. She credits the call from Barbie director Greta Gerwig for saving her and Finneas from the despairing slump. “It brought us out of it, and immediately we were inspired and wrote so much more after that.” The song has now been streamed over a billion times.
Below, we have ranked her best 10 so far, in celebration of the singer’s birthday today (December 18):
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
