In a world full of busy screens, listening to instrumental music can help find calm.
In a world full of busy screens, listening to instrumental music can help us all find a bit of calm.
You’ll have noticed some interesting conversations recently about the role of screens in the lives of under 5’s. The guidance released in March 2026 recommends limiting daily screen time to one hour for 2-5 year-olds and avoiding most screen use completely for under 2’s. A healthy habit for all of us seems to be avoiding screens in the hour before bedtime.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d936n7445o
We know that screen time is often sedentary and passive: sometimes useful for down-time. Reflecting on this, we notice in our sessions that children enjoy resting to gentle, calm music. Our Little Notes musicians (however young) have discovered that they can rest to the lullabies at the end of class. It’s always a beautiful moment to see even the most active children choosing to lie down and enjoy listening to calm music without the need for a screen in reach. Why not give this a go at home and find some tracks of slow, gentle music that you and your child both enjoy.
It’s so worth it. Incredibly, listening to slow music actually causes a child’s heart-rate to slow down, promoting calmness and relaxed breathing.
In our own parenting, we’ve often used music as a mood-changer in our home. If we’ve needed to change the atmosphere for whatever reason, finding the right tune has often done the trick when sometimes words really have little impact.
On that note, we’ve found calm instrumental music to be really useful when trying to create a restful environment. Our current playlist includes Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No 1, Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Aquarium from Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals.
It’s interesting that making this switch from screens to music can still enable down-time but helps children self-regulate their emotions and prepare their bodies for rest. Just like building any new habit, it might take a bit of time to be able to smoothly step-away from screens but hopefully you’ll get to relax a bit on the way.