Music promotes mental well-being, and we knew that. But how exactly? And what music? Over the past 30 days, besieged by these questions, we have been trying hard Sona: sleep music for anxietyan app available for iOS and Android that promotes mental well-being through music, which we talk about in our review.
Available both in free and Premium version (at the price of $4.99 a month o $29.99/year with a free trial week), Sona accompanied us at different times of the day: at work (while we were writing one of the many articles for techgameworld.com), while reading a book and even to help us fall asleep. Specifically, we used the Premium version, which gives access to a number of features that we will see shortly.
How Sona works: the app that fights anxiety with music
Sona, winner of CES Innovation Award in 2022is based on scientific research conducted by neuroscientists from theBerkeley University it’s yes Nielsen Neuroscience, which showed that music can affect brain waves and stress hormones. Specifically, Sona’s music was designed to increase alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with a state of calmness and creativity, and to lower the stress hormone cortisol.
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So don’t expect chart hits and rock songs. Sona’s playlist is mainly composed of acoustic compositions, dreamy pianos and almost imperceptible sonorities, all rigorously in slow-tempo. Each song, created by Grammy Award-winning producers and composers, was designed to have an optimal duration, rhythm, tone, melody and harmony to promote relaxation.
The music is accompanied by relaxing motion of the waves that appears on the display, even if the ideal would be to close your eyes and withdraw from the world. In this case it could be useful to connect the smartphone to an external speaker (perhaps a speaker), but turning up the volume too much could be detrimental.
The operation of the app is absolutely simple and intuitive: the interface itself exudes a sense of calm, with a view above the clouds and a central button which, after welcoming us, invites us to start playing. At the top right you can access your profile, mostly useful for Premium features.
Already why listening to Sona is absolutely freewhile subscribers have access to the following extra features:
- Timer to set the playback duration. Particularly useful for dedicated daily sessions or to induce sleep (so as not to leave the smartphone ringing all night)
- Synchronization of breathing: the app allows you to set different guides for breathing control. A feature that we have not found particularly useful, but which can be convenient for those who want to immerse themselves in daily meditation sessions.
- Saving your favorite songs: this function, on the other hand, we used it a lot. Some songs are truly amazing.
- Listening statistics: to monitor and keep track of your daily sessions
- Manual choice of songs
Our review of Sona: how it sounded to us
As announced at the beginning of our review, we tried Sona in the most diverse contexts. Several times, immersed in playback, we have realized how annoying and invasive the WhatsApp notifications we receive every day are, to which we are now accustomed. A trivial thought, but which manifested itself in feeling great frustration every time Sona’s music was interrupted by the sound of the smartphone. This means one thing: the app works, and is really able to remove the sources of stress from the user. For our job, which consists in finding maximum concentration for the writing phase, it’s really a panacea.
In addition to concentration, Sona’s music manages to relieve anxiety, but continuous use is required to achieve this chimera of modern society. The app recommends a daily session of at least twenty minutes, and we strongly agree, although it is difficult to consistently carve out this period of time every day. We also recommend setting up a suitable playback volumenot too high.
If we can say nothing about its effectiveness (the app does exactly what it promises), we have encountered some critical issues from a technical point of view. Our test was performed on an Android device, and more than once the app crashed (or kept playing in the background even after pausing it). Little details though, given that Sona’s ideal experience would be to ignore the smartphone during playback.
If you are experiencing a period of high stress, and are looking for aapp that promotes your mental well-being, we can only recommend Sona. If, on the other hand, you don’t think you need it, we invite you to try it anyway. You may find how exhilarating it is to feel your breath moving in time to a soothing harp.