Yes, music plays a helpful role in your puppy's slumber.
It's common for a baby dog to be restless when you first take them home. It's because they need to adjust to the new environment they've just been introduced to.
So, to calm your pup's nerves, go ahead and try popping on some music for them at bedtime.
It's actually been proven by scientific research that soothing music can help your fur baby sleep.
Music and Puppies' Sleep: The Science Behind It
Music can be one of the many tools you can use to help your puppy sleep through the night.
Several studies found that certain types of music can induce relaxation in puppies. Soft rock, classical music, and reggae are among the few.
How it works is that the slow tempo, regular rhythms, length of notes, and simplicity of tones calm your puppy down.
Soothing music slows down brain waves, which causes your pup's mind to be peaceful and its heart rate reduced. It also helps slow down its breathing to help it fall asleep.
In fact, more research has backed up these claims.
A 2012 study by Dr. Lori Kogan revealed that classical music caused the dog participants to sleep a lot more than usual. It also made them stay quiet most of the time.
Another study in 2017 showed that soft rock and reggae resulted in higher heart rate variability (HRV) in dogs. A high HRV meant that the dogs' stress levels were low, which helped them sleep soundly.
Why Should You Play Music While Your Puppy Sleeps?
There are several benefits music brings to the table when it's time for your pup's snooze time. To name a few, we listed some of them below:
1. Helps With the Adjustment to New Environment
Being in a new environment can be stressful for most newborn puppies. This is because they get overwhelmed when they encounter new sights, smells, and sounds.
Unfamiliar sounds especially can make your fur baby nervous and lose sleep. But don't worry, music will help your puppy through this.
Playing calming music not only helps your puppy relax, but also masks those random noises in your home.
2. Reduces Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety is quite common in puppies, especially if they've been adopted early. This may be because they've been taken away too soon from their littermates.
When they're left alone, puppies can't fall asleep. They panic and end up ruining furniture or soiling carpets instead.
If you need to step out for a bit while your puppy's asleep, just put on some soothing music. It will help keep your puppy sound asleep.
But if in case your little pooch wakes up and you're still not home, you don't have to worry. The music will keep the little bean calm.
Just choose the same music you play while you're at home with your puppy. This will make your fur baby associate the music with your presence.
That way, they won't feel alone and anxious. Instead, they'll feel at ease and fall back to sleep.
3. Eases the Loneliness
Adopted puppies that have been separated from their moms might feel a sense of loneliness often. The weight of it may even feel heavier if they wake up in the middle of the night alone.
To help your puppy feel less lonely, play some relaxing music during bedtime. It will keep your pup company while lulling it back to sleep.
4. Pacify Pent-up Energy
Your puppy might not be able to sleep because of pent-up energy.
Maybe you couldn't play with your fur baby all day to tire it out. So, it's still doing zoomies around you at three in the morning, not showing any signs of slowing down.
If you're usually too busy during the day, maybe you can try including piano music in your pup's bedtime routine.
A study published by Dr. Susan Wagner in 2005 suggested that solo piano music is actually effective in calming dogs down.
Quick Tips in Adding Music to Your Puppy's Sleeping Routine
Tip #1:
Always play music at moderate to low volume. Your puppy's sense of hearing is more sensitive than yours.
So, it's important not to overwhelm its fluffy ears with loud sounds.
Tip #2:
Try tracks that combine soothing music with low-volume noises. This allows you to positively introduce the usual noises in your home to your puppy while it sleeps.
Why Is Sleep Important for a Puppy?
Having a puppy as an addition to your family can be quite fun. But the weight of the responsibility can be serious, too.
You need to provide everything a puppy needs so it grows healthy and strong. And one of the crucial things your puppy needs is a good night's sleep.
Sleep is essential to the healthy development of your puppy's brain, muscles, immune system, and central nervous system.
So, you need to do whatever you can to make sure your canine baby gets enough rest.
There are many negative consequences of sleep loss in puppies.
The common ones are behavioral problems, diseases, and cognitive issues.
1. Prone to Develop Behavioral Problems
Lack of sleep may lead to long-term behavioral problems in puppies.
This is because exhaustion without enough rest can increase the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Some of these behavioral issues can include excessive chewing, frequent whining, and even aggression.
If your puppy is well-rested, it will grow to become a well-adjusted and emotionally stable dog.
2. Susceptible to Diseases
A sleep-deprived puppy is more susceptible to illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. Losing sleep may also affect how the body heals wounds and reacts to infections.
As a growing pooch, it needs sufficient sleep to build its immunity against diseases.
So, if you'd like to give your pup a fighting chance, you've got to help it catch some Zs.
3. Impaired Cognitive Functions
Puppies in their early developmental years absorb all the information they need to be able to navigate the world they live in.
Without proper sleep, they won't be able to fully understand the situations they encounter. Your puppy might struggle to learn tricks.
It might be difficult to potty train it. And it might not be able to develop its memory retention.
A puppy has to have ample rest so it can function well.
Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.