With many people turning to music to relax or sleep, it's no wonder that the fastest growing category on Spotify, the online music streaming service, is the Environmental, Sleep and Relaxative genre.
Last week, the site released 282 albums under this category alone - more than the number of new releases for genres like Latin pop, hard rock and dancehall - according to The Guardian.
Spotify's data team culled the numbers from the new system called the Sorting Hat, which the company said is an "experimental attempt at an algorithmic organization of the week's new releases." Sorting Hat was able to determine that 11.6 percent of the new releases were part of the sleep and relaxation category, with popular titles like "Beach Sleep Sounds" and "Spiritual Guitar Chillout" as the most played tracks.
In April, the company estimated that more than 2.8 million users have shared and uploaded "sleep-themed" songs and albums, according to Billboard. The most popular of these songs was "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran.
Several studies have already shown the effects of music for sleep and relaxation, and in some cases it can be an alternative cure for when the body and mind are stressed or beat. "Systematically, this could be like taking a pill. Listening to music seems to be able to change brain functioning to the same extent as medication, in many circumstances," according to Gabe Turow, a scholar from Standford's Department of Music, in a previous study.
