How to Build the Best Spravato Playlist for Your Sessions
The music you bring to a Spravato® session is one of the few variables you can actually control. Your clinic, your prescriber, the medicine itself — those are fixed. But your playlist is yours. And a well-built playlist can meaningfully deepen the therapeutic experience.
This guide walks through the six steps I use when building a Spravato® playlist — from basic rules to sequencing to testing. If you'd rather start with something ready-made, our free curated playlists are built with all of these principles in mind. free curated playlists are built with all of these principles in mind.
Start with the right length
A Spravato® session runs approximately 2 hours from administration to discharge. Your playlist should cover at least 90 minutes of music — enough to carry you through onset, peak, descent, and early integration without looping. 20–25 tracks is a good target. Looping the same music can create a sense of being stuck, which is the opposite of what you want.
No lyrics, no guided meditations
This is the most important rule. Lyrics engage the language-processing regions of the brain — the same regions that Spravato® is trying to quiet. Guided meditations do the same. Stick to purely instrumental music. If a track has even a few words, leave it out.
Build an emotional arc
Your playlist should move. Start with something grounding and gentle for the onset phase (minutes 0–15). Build toward something more expansive and emotionally open for the peak (minutes 15–50). Then gradually warm and resolve as the medicine eases (minutes 50–90). Don't start with your most intense music — let the playlist grow into it.
Mix genres intentionally
Classical, ambient, jazz, and new age all have a place in a Spravato® playlist — but they serve different functions. Classical orchestral works tend to carry the most emotional weight and work well at the peak. Ambient and new age work well at onset and integration. Jazz piano can bridge the descent. Don't feel obligated to stick to one genre.
Avoid jarring transitions
Abrupt changes in tempo, key, or dynamic level can be disorienting during a session. When sequencing your playlist, listen to the transitions between tracks. A track that ends loudly followed by one that begins softly can feel like a jolt. Aim for smooth handoffs — similar energy levels, compatible keys, gradual dynamic shifts.
Test it before your session
Listen to your playlist in a relaxed state before your session — not during a session, but in a quiet moment at home. Notice how it makes you feel. Does it move you? Does it feel open and spacious? Does anything feel jarring or demanding? Adjust accordingly. The playlist you use in a session should feel familiar enough to be comfortable, but not so familiar that it triggers specific memories.
Don't want to build from scratch?
Start with our free curated playlists
Four playlists — classical, jazz, ambient, and Windham Hill acoustic — each built for the full arc of a Spravato® session. Available free on Spotify.
Now available
The Listening to Spravato® Book
Genre guides, session playlists, and the science of music-assisted healing — by Justin Page