Is Listening to Music While Studying Beneficial? What’s The Best Music To Listen To For Focus?

Many students love listening to music while they study. It helps pass the time and can make doing schoolwork a little less mind-numbing. But did you know that music can actually help you be more productive, uplift your mood, and increase focus and productivity? If not, keep reading...

Music Uplifts Mood

One of the many leading causes for not wanting to do your schoolwork and studying is not being in the right mood or mindset. It has been proven that music actually elevates your mood by stimulating the hormone dopamine, and if you are familiar with dopamine you know that this hormone is greatly beneficial to your overall happiness and wellbeing (9 Health Benefits of Music, 2020). Music relieves stress and anxiety and allows you to rid your brain of that stress fog that hits you when you are about to start your work. Music is processed in the amygdala of the brain which is the section of the brain that is responsible for mood and emotions. Even if you are really down in the dumps, which happens to most of us around exam season it has been proven that sad music can elevate your mood too (so crank your favourite cry playlist, let it all out and then get some sh*t done). A 2013 study found that listening to upbeat music regularly can increase your overall mood in just 2 weeks (so keep that 'Pharell Williams: 'Happy' playing on repeat). (Does Music Affect Your Mood, 2017).

Classical Music and Cognition

Simply put, yes, music helps you be more productive. Music has the effect of interacting with certain neurons in the brain that increase your concentration, mindset and performance. Classical music has been widely researched in the aspect of increasing cognition and allowing you to be more productive. The Mozart effect is the theory that listening to classical music will make you more intelligent. It has been proven from a study in 1993 that seated 36 college students in a room and then played Mozart for 10 minutes. After doing so the college students took a spacial reasoning test. The result was that the students who listened to Mozart before the test scored significantly higher than those who listened to silence and a monotone voice. To sum up, the Mozart Effect has a positive effect on spatial reasoning which can in turn help your problem-solving, reasoning, and abstract thinking skills. A 2007 study also concluded that listening to classical music can help your brain interpret and absorb new information more easily. So if you are reading exam notes while listening to classical music it can increase your ability to learn and retain that information.

Music Increases Productivity

Yes, classical music is a fantastic aid to your studying endeavours, but it is also important to listen to music you like because listening to the music you like increases your dopamine the most and lets you enjoy yourself. Enjoying yourself is important when studying because when you are enjoying the music you are listening to the happy feeling overflows towards the homework you are doing. This results in allowing you to feel happy and content when doing homework which in turn increases your focus and overall productivity.

List of Music Benefits

1. Improves your heart: Blood flows more easily when music is played, it lowers blood pressure and reduces heart rate
2. Elevates mood: As we talked about playing music you enjoy or that has been shown to improve productivity stimulates certain neurons and areas of the brain responsible for balancing mood and focus
3. It reduces stress: It lowers cortisol levels in your brain which is your stress hormone and activates biochemical stress reducers
4. Relieves symptoms of depression: When you are down in the dumps listening to your favourite music can increase your mood and help you feel less alone
5. Improves memory: In Alzheimer and dementia patients music and music therapy has shown to relax their minds and allow them to think more clearly. *Pro tip: Listen to your favourite music while studying for an exam and then listen to those same songs the morning of your exam, it will help you remember. This works with chewing the same flavour of gum too.
6. It manages pain: Music reduces stress levels and also provides strong stimulation to compete with the pain signals that enter the brain
7. Helps slow eating: If you are looking to lose some extra weight try dimming lights and playing slow music. This can help with feeling more relaxed and at ease, causing you to eat slower and ultimately eat less
8. Music increases workout endurance: listening to your favourite music or music that gets you motivated can cause feelings of motivation and determination sending signals to your muscles to keep going even under fatigue (have you ever listened to 'Dreams and Nightmares' by Meek Mill when trying to rep it out, if you haven't give it a try and see what music can do for you, especially good music... (9 Health Benefits of Music, 2020).

Conclusion

Music has been proven to stimulate emotions in the brain as well as feelings of motivation, happiness, and relaxation allowing you to feel better when studying. Because music helps you feel these emotions, when you combine it with the act of studying and doing homework it can act as a bridge by connecting how you feel with music to doing homework. So if you feel happy when listening to certain music, try and listen to that music when doing homework and you will feel more content with doing the work because you are listening to music that makes you feel happy. The Mozart effect has been proven to increase spatial intelligence but no direct correlation between classical music and general iq. It is definitely a great way to study, listening to classical music stimulates your brain in a different more articulate way that is only discovered when you try it for yourself. Lastly, music not only can have positive benefits for your mind but for your entire body, mentally, physically and spiritually. So, if you are ever feeling in a rut, need to focus on some schoolwork, or simply just want to be in a better mood. Turn on your favourite tunes and scream away: "YOU DON'T KNOW THAT YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL..." (little one direction if you caught my drift...).

Don't forget to pair music with Boost Coffee when you study to exhilarate your study productivity, stay focused, and be energized for longer without the crash of regular coffee!