Does music actually help you study?
Your study music is either effective or distracting.
By Aaron Zhao
For many students, it is an instinct to reach for their headphones when the time to study arrives. Some put it on to isolate themselves from the clamorous environment and make studying more enjoyable, while others do so because it supposedly helps you study “better”. But does listening to music actually help you study more efficiently or is it just a distracting habit?
First, how does music directly affect you?
Music is sound and like all sound, it is a medley of sound waves. These waves ricochet through the ear canal, passing multiple “checkpoints” (ear drum → middle ear bones → cochlea), until it reaches the little hairs in the cochlea, which converts the sound waves to neural signals. Finally, these signals are taken to the brain via the auditory nerve to be processed.
When you are listening to music, multiple regions of your brain are active, processing information sent from your ears at lightning speed. It takes into account everything about the song you’re listening to, from the singer’s timbre to the tone of the melody.
Research has shown that listening to music has therapeutic capabilities. Music is capable of reducing stress, which may climb as the end of the school year approaches and final exams come. A study done on randomly selected patients showed that people who listened to music before surgery were generally more relaxed than those who didn’t. Compared to a student about to take an exam, you can definitely draw some similarities between these two scenarios.
Listening to music in your bedroom is like music therapy.
Music therapy is a popular example that shows how music is just a doctor in disguise. Wikipedia’s definition of music therapy is:
“Music therapists use music and its many facets— physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual— to help clients improve their health in cognitive, motor, emotional, communicative, social, sensory, and educational domains by using both active and receptive music experiences.”
While you may not need professional music therapy, your everyday listening undoubtedly can have similar effects and outcomes. For instance, research has shown that “music serves as a potent trigger for retrieving memories.” (Petr Janata on the connection between music and memory), which can aid in preparing for a test.
Music can also affect your mood; there is a vibe you feel depending on the genre you are listening to. While lofi creates a nostalgic atmosphere, EDM excites your heart. Different genres of music produce different moods, just like how a coming-of-age movie feels different than a post-apocalyptic one.
Let’s visualize how music can change your mood favourably with two contrasting examples.
- Suppose you came back from a soccer game, feeling exuberant and overwhelmed that your team just carried home the provincial cup. You now decide to study, but you can’t because of your bubbling excitement. So what do you do? You put on your headphones and play your calming, lofi playlist. Soon enough, your heart and mind are at rest, and you begin to study with minimal mental distractions.
- Suppose you cam back from a soccer game, feeling exhausted and moody that your team just lost the finals. You now decide to study, but you can’t because of you’ve lost motivation to do anything after that loss. So what do you do? You put on your headphones and play your motivational, EDM playlist. Soon enough, you feel empowered and energized, and begin to study with passion.
(Learn more about this method, the arousal-mood hypothesis here)
Music is very flexible and versatile, able to change your mood for the better in almost any situation. Use that as an advantage to help you get into the right mood for studying.
On a side note, studies suggest that classical music is a great genre as an outro for the night. It relaxes your mind and softens the overflow of information you had just acquired from studying.
Making studying more enjoyable does not necessarily mean better studying.
I asked some teens the question “Does [music] sometimes get distracting?”. The result? 76% said yes. In the same poll as above, I also asked “Why do you listen to music when you study?” and most said “to make it more enjoyable”.
There are so many more things teens prefer over studying, but everyone knows it is inevitable. So, to cope with notebooks, textbooks, and websites, teens often turn to their favourite playlist to get them through these “dull times”.
Here’s where the problem arises: one can easily become distracted.
Today’s music is drastically different than music played last century, and arguably wilder. Genres like rap are characterized by repetitive drums, autotune, and heavy bass (808s), while the pop is heavily reliant upon vocals, sometimes layers upon layers of it.
What I’m trying to say is: some genres are just not meant for accompanying a study session, like the genres mentioned above.
It seems to be that songs that rely on vocals are generally more distracting, because while you are reading and taking notes, your mind is also processing the words of the singer. Your brain has no problem processing it, but often you might notice your mind gets a little jumbled every now and then. Why?
You are writing down notes, thinking about what to write, reading off of website and textbooks, and processing the singer’s words all AT THE SAME TIME. This doesn’t sound like the most optimal environment for efficient studying.
The answer to the question: it all comes down to each individual person.
Repeated studies have shown that introversion and one’s cognitive ability to work with music do have a connection. Introverts tend to perform not as well studying with music on than off, backed by the tentative claim that they are over-stimulated more easily than extroverts.
Also, don’t forget that everyone’s taste in music is different, so it’s hard to decisively say A SPECIFIC genre will help you study better. Despite rap and pop being fast and vocal-reliant, I know countless people who study perfectly fine alongside them.
Finally, everyone’s cognitive capabilities are different, thus everyone will react differently to music. Some may become easily distracted by any music playing in the background, while it can boost the efficiency of others.
In the end, I cannot answer the question “Does music actually help you study?” YOU have to answer it. Try out different genres. Try studying with music on for a week, then without music the following week. Explore different genres and see how each genre affects your mood, attention, and comprehension. And ask yourself every time: is my music effective or distracting? If it is distracting what should I do?
Studying is a very personalized process, so experiment with music and silence to see what fits you best!
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