Noise Pollution Is Everywhere: 5 Tips To Help You Turn Down The Volume

I can’t get more than a few seconds into the song “Midnight City” without thinking of nights driving around Sydney, Australia, as a college kid. And Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” never fails to transport me to my first post-pandemic vacation, on the cobblestone streets of Charleston, South Carolina.

I’m not alone in my headphone time travels. Everyone gets a music-evoked memory at one point or another. When’s the last time music took you somewhere else, and where did you go?

Researchers are just beginning to dig into why music can evoke such vivid and specific memories. Here’s what they’ve discovered so far—and how to use the connection between music, memory, and emotion to your advantage this summer and beyond.

The transportive power of music

Music, more than other sensory cues, can transport us back to specific times in our lives. Listening to a nostalgic song tends to evoke more detailed, emotionally charged memories than looking at a photo, for example.

These are called music-evoked autobiographical memories, or MEAMs for short. Research shows that MEAMs tend to be strong, specific, and, in many cases, subconscious. Even those with dementia are still able to recall familiar songs and the life experiences associated with them in some cases.

It’s not clear what makes music so evocative, but the answer could lie in the brain regions that control emotion and memory. 

Yiren Ren, Ph.D., a cognitive neuroscientist studying music and memory, recently set up an experiment that had people listen to music and recall certain memories while hooked up to an fMRI scanner. After analyzing the results, Ren and collaborators noticed enhanced activity in the amygdala (the brain’s emotional center) and the hippocampus (essential for storing and retrieving memories) during the exercise.

“This is why a song associated with a significant life event can feel so powerful – it activates both emotion- and memory-processing regions simultaneously,” Ren writes about her research in The Conversation.

Separate research finds that songs we consider more pleasurable tend to be the best at setting off this response, giving us a clue about how to use this mental marvel to our advantage. 

Who gets MEAMs the most?

Though everyone has their own experience with music-evoked autobiographical memories, research suggests that most people have them fairly frequently, at least once a day on average.

One study published in 2019 investigated when, exactly, these memories seemed to be most likely to occur. After asking 31 adults to track their music and memories throughout the day, researchers found that most MEAMs happened while they were driving or taking public transport, or while doing routine tasks or activities that are less cognitively demanding, like housework, relaxing, getting ready, or walking.

People over the age of 60 seem to experience more MEAMs than younger adults (potentially because they have more life experience to pull upon), and women may be more likely to get them than men.

Making memories with music

Most of us intuitively know that music can spark memories, but understanding the science of why and how this happens can help us use sound more intentionally in our daily lives. We can all get into the habit of time traveling with music, starting this summer.

The next time you have an experience that you want to remember, try making a playlist for it. Think of this playlist as a portal you can use to keep returning to that moment again and again. Play it in the background while you’re doing routine tasks that don’t require much attention, and see where your mind takes you. It could be right back to that special place you want to revisit.

You can tailor this playlist technique to what, specifically, you’re looking to remember. If it’s a summer vacation to a new place, try adding a mix of local songs and music that you listened to on your trip. If it’s an experience with a friend or loved one, throw on some songs you associate with that person. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s music that you enjoy and find pleasure in to maximize your chances of experiencing a MEAM.

This is just one example of an actionable, science-backed way to use sound in your health and well-being routine. Along with music therapy apps like Spiritune, “memory playlists” can be valuable tools for reinvigorating your mood and mindset using music.

Here at Spiritune, we talk a lot about the power of music to alter mood. When you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious, listening to music can help take your mind off these emotions and encourage your body to relax.

One natural follow-up question we often get is: How quickly does this happen? How long do you need to listen to music before it can improve your mood? The answer isn’t so cut-and-dried; it largely depends on the person, music, and context. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re sharing the nuanced research on how much music to listen to at a time for maximum, lasting stress reduction benefits.

Clocking music’s impacts

Before we dig into the ideal “dose,” let’s review the pathways through which music relieves stress. 

First off, listening to pleasurable music engages brain regions associated with reward, motivation, and emotions. For the neurology-curious: The ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal, and ventral medial prefrontal cortices have all been implicated in the listening experience. Once a song or musical track reaches its peak intensity, it can trigger the release of dopamine in the brain, contributing to feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment.

Music-evoked positive emotions can help counter the negative emotions brought on by stress, and there are a few theories on why. For starters, music may act as an “anchor” that draws our attention away from ruminative, repetitive thoughts. Some studies have also found that listening to music can decrease elevated cortisol levels following a stressor compared to silence or non-musical controls (think: the sound of rippling water).

An analysis of 104 randomized controlled trials, published in 2019, concluded that music can not only ease the emotions associated with stress, but the physical sensations of stress as well.

Music listening is known to cause changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension due in part to the process of entrainment. Entrainment happens when our bodies’ rhythms begin to synchronize with the rhythms of music.

Research on musical entrainment shows that it happens relatively quickly. In one study, classical music influenced people’s heart rate variability (HRV) within just three minutes of listening.

This suggests that some of the effects of music listening happen nearly instantly, but these may be too subtle to pick up on (after all, you can’t feel your HRV going up and down). 

As for how long it takes for music to contribute to noticeable changes in mood, estimates vary—but one fascinating study found that 20 minutes seems to be a threshold. 

Published in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine in 2017, this study prompted 60 undergraduate students to report on their music listening habits in real time. Every day for a week, students consented to having their music activities tracked (via an iPod or smartphone). At random intervals throughout the day, they were prompted to answer questions about their stress, mood, and music listening behavior as they went about their usual routine. 

This was an “ambulatory assessment,” meaning it studied individuals in their natural environments instead of in a lab to get a sense of real-life behaviors. 

After crunching the numbers, researchers found that participants reported significantly higher stress levels when they had recently listened to music for less than 5 minutes. Listening to music for more than 20 minutes was associated with lower stress reports, suggesting this could be a sweet spot for maximum benefits. 

What type of music is best?

To recap, research suggests that our bodies tend to “sync” to the music we listen to within a few minutes, but listening to music for at least 20 minutes at a time has been associated with stress reduction benefits.

That said, everyone is different! The preferences, emotions, and memories you bring to the experience of listening no doubt impact the way that music impacts you on any given day.

Certain types of music also seem to be more effective at relieving stress than others. This was beautifully demonstrated in a qualitative study on seven young people (19–28 years old) suffering from depression. Researchers interviewed participants about the type of music they listened to when they were in a low mood. 

“When participants listened to music that mirrored their current circumstances, this appeared to have less desirable mood outcomes, possibly because listening to such music is akin to ruminating,” researchers concluded. On the other hand, listening to more upbeat or optimistic music was found to offer a distraction from depressive thoughts, albeit a brief one.

Some combination of the two—music that matches one’s negative mood and then gradually transitions to become more positive—seems to be most effective for lasting relief. 

Take this 2021 study, in which healthy adults watched a sad movie clip before listening to two pieces of music. The music fell into the buckets of: sad-sad, sad-happy, happy-happy, and happy-sad. “The group of participants who listened to the sad music first and the happy music afterwards ultimately reported a higher positive affect, a higher emotional valence, and a lower negative affect compared with the other groups,” researchers found.

Now, to put these findings into practice: The next time you’re feeling stressed or down, try playing music that matches your current mood before transitioning into a more positive rhythm and structure. Listen for at least 20 minutes and repeat as needed throughout the day. 

Spiritune is an ideal ally for this type of targeted musical intervention. Our tracks are designed using principles of neuroscience and music therapy to gradually guide listeners from their current mood to their desired mood state. Once you press play on a track, it will continue for as long as you need. Whether your journey to calm takes two minutes or twenty, we’re so happy to help guide the way.

It’s summertime, but the living is not easy for millions of parents with young kids. With schools closed, parents need to cobble together activities to fill long days, find ways to balance work and family time, and manage the occasional tantrum. All these extra responsibilities can make summer “break” feel like anything but. Can music therapy provide some relief?

Here’s the stressed parent’s guide to strategically using sound to help your child (and yourself) feel calm, relaxed, and focused.

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The research on tunes for tots

In addition to toothy smiles and spontaneous dance sessions, music can evoke a physiological response in children. Certain songs may affect their heart rate and blood pressure, for example, with faster tempos generally leading to higher energy levels, and slower, more melodic music having a relaxing effect.

Music can also spur noticeable (and quantifiable) changes to the developing brain. Interestingly enough, music and emotional processing share a few common neural networks, and there’s reason to believe that music can positively impact emotional intelligence.

One systematic review of the science on music and emotions in 3- to 12-year-olds found that students who took part in musical activities were better able to recognize and express their emotions and regulate emotional states such as aggression than those who didn’t. This could be partially driven by music’s ability to facilitate self-awareness and empathy, essential traits at any age, but especially for growing kids. 

Music can also help children fine-tune their attention and focus. In one 2020 study, 30 minutes of a guided music intervention was shown to improve 6-to-9-year-olds’ ability to stay on-task compared to a video game intervention. (However, music with lyrics can sometimes have the opposite effect and be distracting, so it’s important to choose your tracks wisely. (More on this below.) 

Beyond helping children individually, crafting musical routines can also lead you to bond as a family. 

When groups of people come together to listen, sing, or play instruments, their heart rates, breathing patterns, and movements tend to synchronize. Music listening can also increase levels of oxytocin, the “love hormone” that promotes bonding, empathy, and trust. 

To summarize, though we could still use more research on how music impacts children (particularly those who encompass diverse backgrounds and psychological needs), existing studies show that it can enhance mood, emotional intelligence, attention, and the ability to bond with others.  

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How to bring music medicine home

Here’s how to strategically use music at home this summer, based on recent research on sound therapy for kids:

+ Encourage kids to play along to their favorite songs: During the 2020 study that found that music can improve attention control in children, participants were prompted to play percussion instruments during certain points of songs (i.e., whenever they heard a high note). Providing these cues for kids seems to help them further “tune into” what’s playing and stay focused on the music. Try out a version of this yourself by encouraging your child to play along during certain inflection points of their favorite songs. If you don’t have any instruments at home, buckets, pots, pans, or clapping work well too!

+ Ask them how music makes them feel: If your kids are older, ask them about how a song or album makes them feel or the emotions that it brings up for them. This can help them develop emotional acuity and practice their expression skills. If they have trouble putting their feelings into words, they can always dance them out! 

+ Craft a summer playlist together: Create a music ritual as a family by collaborating on a playlist of your favorite upbeat summer tunes. That way, it will always be for when a dance party mood strikes.

Music can also help reverse tantrums and mood swings when selected with intention. That’s where Spiritune comes in. 

During emotional outbursts or distress, listening to music that begins by matching your heightened emotional state and then gradually transitions to a calmer or more positive tone is a therapeutic method for calming you down or guiding your mood to a more positive state. Spiritune tracks take the guesswork out of musical synchronization by arranging tracks that are customized to match the current mood (i.e., Angry) and then transition the musical features to evoke the desired emotional state (i.e.,Relaxed). 

“My toddler son was losing his mind, didn’t want to be held, wanted no one in his room, screaming and crying,” one Spiritune reviewer writes. “Ten minutes of Spiritune ‘Angry to Relaxed’ music and he’s back to normal.” 

Since Spiritune tracks don’t have distracting lyrics, they’re also ideal background music for tasks that require more focus or creativity. Another user notes that her son now requests Spiritune (or, as he calls it, “brain music”) to help him concentrate during Lego building. 

For Spiritune founder, Jamie Pabst, it's very personal. She was finishing building the final stages of the Spiritune platform while pregnant with her first child -and launched it with a newborn in her arms. Using Spiritune music in a family setting has been part of her journey from the very start. Jamie says, “As a mom of two, I use Spiritune with my kids daily - whether it’s calming transitions at bedtime or setting a positive tone for the day. I designed Spiritune with fellow parents in mind, knowing how powerful - and necessary - sound can be as a gentle, supportive tool for emotional regulation at every age. It's definitely helped build emotional awareness within each of my kids, and it's a joy to help others do the same.”

Spiritune has no age limit. After it helps your kids calm down, the app can bring you moments of peace and clarity as well. Try it out this summer whenever you could use more energy, less stress, and enhanced focus. Let the music help you connect with your senses and remember: Parenting is hard work, but you’re doing the best you can to bring the harmony.