---
canonical_url: 'https://silvanhagen.com/writing/music-in-my-head'
title: 'There is music playing in my head when I wake up'
description: 'For as long as I can remember, every morning when I wake up, a song is playing in my head. Here is the song of the day playlist for 2024.'
type: essay
language: en
scraped_at: '2026-02-04T13:46:12+01:00'
---

# There is music playing in my head when I wake up

![Song of the Day 2024 playlist Cover](https://silvanhagen.com/content/images/2024/01/song-of-the-day-2024-sotd24-1.webp)For as long as I can remember, every morning when I wake up, a song is playing in my head. There are very few days when it doesn't happen. Sometimes the origin of the song is straight forward, I heard it somewhere a day or two before. Most of the time, it's a song that I haven't heard in a long long time, often years. I do love waking up with a song in my head, but a lot of these songs I don't even like.

## Seems like I'm not alone

Last year in August, I tweeted about it and quite a few people replied that they have the same thing happening almost every day.

> Is it just me or does anyone else wake up in the morning with a song playing in their head? 易
>
> Today it was: [https://t.co/RGJGs8eOpm](https://t.co/RGJGs8eOpm?ref=silvanhagen.com)
>
> Haven't listened to this song in years 
>
> — Silvan Hagen ⚡️ (@neverything) [August 8, 2023](https://twitter.com/neverything/status/1688836517488218112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=silvanhagen.com)

This gave me an idea, why not create a playlist and adding all the songs that play in my head every morning? So here it is, a growing playlist of the songs my brain plays when I wake up.

## Song of the Day 2024 playlist

The rules are simple, when I wake up, I look for the song playing in my head and add it to the playlist. If on any given day there is no song playing, I will not add a song on that day.

Feel free to judge me on this, as mentioned before these songs do not always reflect my taste in music.

## Digging deeper

As any sensible human these days, I asked ChatGPT to explain this phenomena to me. Here is what the machine thinks could be the reasons behind it:

1. **Long-Term Memory and Music:** Music has a strong connection to memory. Your brain can store a vast repertoire of songs and melodies, often linked with specific memories or periods in your life. A song you haven't heard in years might surface due to a subconscious trigger, such as a dream, a thought, an emotion, or a sensory input that is somehow associated with that song.
2. **Subconscious Processing:** While you sleep, your brain doesn't just rest; it actively processes memories, emotions, and information from the day. This process can sometimes trigger the recall of long-forgotten songs. Dreams, though not always remembered, can also play a role in this. They can be a mash-up of various life experiences, thoughts, and emotions, potentially triggering the memory of a song.
3. **Emotional and Contextual Triggers:** Music is strongly tied to emotions. A song from the past might emerge in your mind because it's linked to a particular emotional memory or feeling. The context of the song (when you first heard it, what you were doing, who you were with) can also play a role. Sometimes, the current emotional state or life circumstances might subconsciously resonate with those past experiences, bringing the song to the forefront of your mind.
4. **Random Neural Activity:** The brain has a degree of random neural firing that occurs naturally. Sometimes, this random activity might trigger the recall of a specific song fragment, especially if that song was once very familiar or had a significant impact.
5. **Earworms and Cognitive Patterns:** Earworms can be a result of your brain's natural inclination towards patterns and repetition. Even if a song hasn't been heard recently, its strong, repetitive pattern might make it more likely to become an earworm.

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