Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis

BackgroundSleep plays an essential role in the psychological and physiological functioning of humans. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that sleep duration was significantly reduced among US adults in 2012 compared to 1985. Studies have...

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Main Authors: Eke, Ransome, Li, Tong, Bond, Kiersten, Ho, Arlene, Graves, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: JMIR Publications 2020-08-01
Series:Journal of Medical Internet Research
Online Access:http://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e15697/
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spelling doaj-2eef01c8cbdb4801b8b95217d95a6b212021-04-02T18:55:44ZengJMIR PublicationsJournal of Medical Internet Research1438-88712020-08-01228e1569710.2196/15697Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content AnalysisEke, RansomeLi, TongBond, KierstenHo, ArleneGraves, Lisa BackgroundSleep plays an essential role in the psychological and physiological functioning of humans. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that sleep duration was significantly reduced among US adults in 2012 compared to 1985. Studies have described a significant association between listening to soothing music and an improvement in sleep quality and sleep duration. YouTube is a platform where users can access sleep-aiding music videos. No literature exists pertaining to the use of sleep-aiding music on YouTube. ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the patterns of viewing sleep-aiding music videos on YouTube. We also performed a content analysis of the comments left on sleep-aiding music video posts, to describe the perception of users regarding the effects of these music videos on their sleep quality. MethodsWe searched for sleep-aiding music videos published on YouTube between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2017. We sorted videos by view number (highest to lowest) and used a targeted sampling approach to select eligible videos for qualitative content analysis. To perform the content analysis, we imported comments into a mixed-method analytical software. We summarized variables including total views, likes, dislikes, play duration, and age of published music videos. All descriptive statistics were completed with SAS statistical software. ResultsWe found a total of 238 sleep-aiding music videos on YouTube that met the inclusion criteria. The total view count was 1,467,747,018 and the total playtime was 84,252 minutes. The median play length was 186 minutes (IQR 122 to 480 minutes) and the like to dislike ratio was approximately 9 to 1. In total, 135 (56.7%) videos had over 1 million views, and 124 (52.1%) of the published sleep-aiding music videos had stayed active for 1 to 2 years. Overall, 4023 comments were extracted from 20 selected sleep-aiding music videos. Five overarching themes emerged in the reviewed comments, including viewers experiencing a sleep problem, perspective on the positive impact of the sleep-aiding music videos, no effect of the sleep-aiding music videos, time to initiation of sleep or sleep duration, and location of viewers. The overall κ statistic for the codes was 0.87 (range 0.85-0.96). ConclusionsThis is the first study to examine the patterns of viewing sleep-aiding music videos on YouTube. We observed a substantial increase in the number of people using sleep-aiding music videos, with a wide variation in viewer location. This study supports the hypothesis that listening to soothing music has a positive impact on sleep habits.http://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e15697/
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Eke, Ransome
Li, Tong
Bond, Kiersten
Ho, Arlene
Graves, Lisa
spellingShingle Eke, Ransome
Li, Tong
Bond, Kiersten
Ho, Arlene
Graves, Lisa
Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis
Journal of Medical Internet Research
author_facet Eke, Ransome
Li, Tong
Bond, Kiersten
Ho, Arlene
Graves, Lisa
author_sort Eke, Ransome
title Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis
title_short Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis
title_full Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis
title_fullStr Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Viewing Trends and Users’ Perceptions of the Effect of Sleep-Aiding Music on YouTube: Quantification and Thematic Content Analysis
title_sort viewing trends and users’ perceptions of the effect of sleep-aiding music on youtube: quantification and thematic content analysis
publisher JMIR Publications
series Journal of Medical Internet Research
issn 1438-8871
publishDate 2020-08-01
description BackgroundSleep plays an essential role in the psychological and physiological functioning of humans. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that sleep duration was significantly reduced among US adults in 2012 compared to 1985. Studies have described a significant association between listening to soothing music and an improvement in sleep quality and sleep duration. YouTube is a platform where users can access sleep-aiding music videos. No literature exists pertaining to the use of sleep-aiding music on YouTube. ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the patterns of viewing sleep-aiding music videos on YouTube. We also performed a content analysis of the comments left on sleep-aiding music video posts, to describe the perception of users regarding the effects of these music videos on their sleep quality. MethodsWe searched for sleep-aiding music videos published on YouTube between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2017. We sorted videos by view number (highest to lowest) and used a targeted sampling approach to select eligible videos for qualitative content analysis. To perform the content analysis, we imported comments into a mixed-method analytical software. We summarized variables including total views, likes, dislikes, play duration, and age of published music videos. All descriptive statistics were completed with SAS statistical software. ResultsWe found a total of 238 sleep-aiding music videos on YouTube that met the inclusion criteria. The total view count was 1,467,747,018 and the total playtime was 84,252 minutes. The median play length was 186 minutes (IQR 122 to 480 minutes) and the like to dislike ratio was approximately 9 to 1. In total, 135 (56.7%) videos had over 1 million views, and 124 (52.1%) of the published sleep-aiding music videos had stayed active for 1 to 2 years. Overall, 4023 comments were extracted from 20 selected sleep-aiding music videos. Five overarching themes emerged in the reviewed comments, including viewers experiencing a sleep problem, perspective on the positive impact of the sleep-aiding music videos, no effect of the sleep-aiding music videos, time to initiation of sleep or sleep duration, and location of viewers. The overall κ statistic for the codes was 0.87 (range 0.85-0.96). ConclusionsThis is the first study to examine the patterns of viewing sleep-aiding music videos on YouTube. We observed a substantial increase in the number of people using sleep-aiding music videos, with a wide variation in viewer location. This study supports the hypothesis that listening to soothing music has a positive impact on sleep habits.
url http://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e15697/
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