Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, or The Weeknd: These Top Hits and Artists Rule Germany’s Bedrooms

Falling into bed after a long day and drifting off to sleep right away, only to wake up feeling refreshed the next morning: For many people, this is just a pipe dream. A survey we conducted shows that nearly one-third of Germans struggle with falling asleep.

For many people, music can also help them fall asleep and avoid sleep disturbances. Calm and gentle sounds can help the body relax and fall asleep more easily. But it’s just as important to wake up in a good mood in the morning and start the day full of energy. So what music sets the tone in the evening and in the morning?

We dug through various playlists and found out which songs and artists are most frequently listened to for falling asleep and waking up. We also took a closer look at the playlists that are popular for intimate moments. The result: The songs vary significantly depending on the time of day. According to our findings, pop songs by Taylor Swift are more likely to be listened to when waking up, while in the evening, instrumental music—alongside slow songs like those by Billie Eilish—dominates the playlists. When things get intimate again before bedtime, however, music by R&B artist The Weeknd tends to play in the background in the bedroom. In addition to the songs and artists, we also took a close look at the frequency of keys, volume, and genre.

On this page, you’ll find all the results of the comparison. You can get inspired to create your own personal bedroom playlist and find the perfect soundtrack to help you fall asleep quickly, start your day full of energy, or get intimate with your partner.

These Are the Most Popular Songs for Falling Asleep

To fall asleep as quickly as possible with music, it shouldn’t be too energetic or loud. The comparison confirms this: The top list consists mainly of calm ballads and instrumental songs. Topping the list with 56 playlists is “Another Love” by Tom Odell—a piano-driven hit in which the singer tries to get over his heartbreak.

John Legend and the piano melodies in “All of Me” lull a similar number of listeners to sleep across the 47 tracklists.

The mellow song “lovely” by Billie Eilish featuring Khalid is also frequently used to drift off to sleep (40 appearances).

“The Night We Met” (Lord Huron), “Let Her Go” (Passenger), and “Daylight” (David Kushner) are on constant repeat in 39 playlists each to help listeners fall asleep.

An overview of the frequency of song titles can be found here:

These artists are most often played to help people fall asleep

Especially when it comes to the top artists, it’s clear that Germans don’t necessarily listen to well-known international stars to fall asleep. Instead, the list is dominated by artists whose calm melodies lull listeners to sleep. These include blondette and sleepy planet, who appear particularly often on sleep playlists with 342 and 313 appearances, respectively. Grammy and Oscar winner Billie Eilish, who rose to worldwide fame in 2015 with the song “Ocean Eyes,” comes in third place with 277 appearances. Calmly also ranks particularly high, appearing in 274 playlists with its instrumental music. Rounding out the top list is the band Bastille with 235 appearances.

Check out the table to see which other artists are singing you to sleep:

By the way: The three most popular genres for falling asleep include pop, New Age, and hip-hop. Typically for lullabies, the most common decibel level ranges between -5 and -9 decibels. In terms of keys, the songs are mostly in major keys: they’re primarily composed in C major, C-sharp major, and D major.

These lullabies most often lull children into the world of dreams

While adults primarily fall asleep without vocal music, the situation is quite different when it comes to children’s songs: Most often, children listen to the vocals in “Der Mond ist aufgegangen” to fall asleep (35 playlists), followed by “Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen” and “Ich bin ein kleiner Pinguin” (30 and 27 appearances, respectively). The songs “Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf” and “Hoch in der Luft” also help children drift off to sleep, appearing 24 and 23 times, respectively, in the comparison. A surprising result of the comparison: the classic “La Le Lu” appears on only 17 playlists and thus does not make it into the top ten.

These children’s songs round out the bedtime top list:

These Are the Most Popular Songs for Waking Up

Music helps you avoid tossing and turning in bed for too long and having to hit the snooze button over and over again. Germans are particularly fond of one one-hit wonder when it comes to playlists for waking up: A total of 34 playlists start the day with “Guten Morgen Sonnenschein” and Nana Mouskouri’s distinctive high-pitched voice.

The Beatles’ timeless classic “Here Comes the Sun” also puts people in a good mood; it appears on a total of 24 playlists.

To motivate yourself to get out of bed, “Aufstehn!” by Seed and CeeLo Green comes in handy: The Berlin-based band’s song is heard particularly often in bedrooms in the morning.

With 22 playlists each, “Wake Me Up” (Avicii), “Sunrise” (Norah Jones), “Lovely Day” (Bill Withers), and “Flowers” (Miley Cyrus) are also part of the morning routine.

This table shows which songs put you in a good mood in the morning:

Germans love these artists

While Germans prefer calm music for sleeping, in the morning it’s more about really waking up with energetic music and getting the day off to a good start. No artist is better suited for this than Taylor Swift, who tops the ranking with 108 playlists. This puts the successful artist ahead of singer Ed Sheeran and the British band Coldplay, who come in second and third place (with 92 and 80 playlists, respectively). With the Beatles, Sabaton, and Imagine Dragons, male-led bands in particular are among the other favorites (73 appearances).

An overview of the artists who appear most frequently in wake-up playlists can be found here:

Unlike sleep playlists, pop, electronic, and hip-hop dominate wake-up playlists. In terms of volume, the decibel level of wake-up songs often ranges between -4 and -8 decibels, making them slightly louder than sleep songs. Both comparisons show a clear preference for certain keys: most hits are written in C major, G major, and D major.

These songs play during sex

Sex isn’t just about satisfying desire: perhaps the most beautiful little thing in the world also has a positive effect on sleep. Music can provide that extra bit of excitement: The Weeknd, in particular, often sets the mood for a romantic tryst: Three of the most-listened-to songs during sex were penned by the American R&B star: “The Hills,” “Often,” and “Call Out My Name” are the tracks most frequently heard in the bedroom (89, 78, and 71 playlists, respectively).

Two Feet rounds out the top five: “Love Is a Bitch” and “I Feel Like I’m Drowning” appear particularly often, with 101 and 87 playlists, respectively.

Here’s another overview of the most popular songs:

These artists are the most likely to get things going

As the top song list reveals, The Weeknd and Two Feet dominate the sex playlists with 960 and 597 appearances, respectively. In addition to these two artists, things also get intimate quite often with Cigarettes After Sex: the indie rock band from the U.S. is featured in 675 playlists. However, people also get intimate while listening to female vocals. Lana Del Rey and Rihanna, in particular, appear high in the rankings of the most popular artists for intimate moments, with 571 and 390 appearances, respectively.

Find out which other singers lead to climax in this table:

Just as with falling asleep, the songs that go well with sex tend to be quiet and usually range between -5 and -9 decibels. The most popular genres for getting intimate are pop, R&B, and hip-hop. As with the sleep comparison, the songs are composed primarily in C major, C-sharp major, and D major.

What did we do?

For this comparison, we collected songs from all Spotify playlists that include one of the following keywords in their titles: sleep, silence, calm, slumber, tired, waking up, sex, sensual, intimate, erotic. In total, the study included 2,900 playlists and 89,428 songs for falling asleep, 1,700 playlists and 33,760 songs for waking up, and 2,796 playlists and 76,514 songs for sex. The song titles were analyzed based on frequency, duration, tempo (bpm), genre, decibels, and key. Children’s songs were considered separately.