The end-of-year period is not always the most relaxing time for children: between seemingly endless family dinners and the excitement of opening presents, young ones often experience disrupted sleep patterns, and may even have trouble calming down at bedtime.
Well, good news – one study suggests that certain Christmas songs can help children fall asleep more than others. Experts from the Bed Kingdom website came to this conclusion after cataloguing the key characteristics of over 300 tracks in sleep-related Spotify playlists.
They then applied these criteria to different Christmas tunes to determine which would be most conducive to sleep.
It turns out that acoustic songs with a slow tempo (under 100 beats per minute) lend themselves particularly well to this. These include Mother’s Daughter’s “The Secret of Christmas”, Michael Bolton’s “White Christmas”, and Michael Bublé’s “Silent Night”.
Most relaxing Christmas songs are melancholy ballads, such as Frank Sinatra’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, Kelly Clarkson’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and Doris Day’s “Christmas Present”.
The self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey, does appear in this ranking, but not thanks to her famous “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. Her song “Christmas Time Is in The Air Again”, released in 2010 on her album “Merry Christmas II You,” appears in 10th place thanks to its soothing tempo.
Here are the 10 Christmas songs that should help little ones doze off easily. (Meanwhile, have you checked out the 10 festive songs you shouldn’t listen to while driving?)
- “The Secret of Christmas” by Mother’s Daughter
- “White Christmas” by Michael Bolton
- “Silent Night” by Michael Bublé
- “Angels We Have Heard on High” by Andrea Bocelli
- “I’ll Be Home for Christmas (If Only In My Dreams)” by Frank Sinatra
- “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Kelly Clarkson
- “O Holy Night” by Ellie Goulding
- “Christmas Present” by Doris Day
- “A Cradle in Bethlehem” by Nat King Cole
- “Christmas Time Is in The Air Again” by Mariah Carey