Does Music Help You Study?

Numerous students prefer studying with music and swear by the method. While this might be a handy trick to shut out noisy surroundings, or to help calm the mind when trying to focus on a particular topic, music has often been used by students to keep themselves away from distractions. Music is no doubt a calming element in the rather chaotic and anxiety-addled student lives, but does music help you study? Among humanity’s primal conceptualizations, music has had an integral role to play in culture and the transmission of ideas since time immemorial. Given that several individuals find solace in sounds rather than in silence, it is only natural that students turn toward various melodies in an attempt to draw their minds toward focused academic tasks. 

However, music for studying has been a topic surrounded by both supportive and opposing opinions, each with tangible evidence to back their claims. This makes the matter especially confounding for students that are on the fence about whether or not to study with music playing in the background. Using it for educational tasks has not only been a matter of contention for students but has also been argued over by numerous academicians and cognitive psychologists. Before going further, it must be stated that while some forms might indeed be soothing and beneficial for study sessions, the advantages are limited only to a few forms and genres. Bearing this in mind, the further sections delve into music’s utilities and help you understand if listening to it when studying is the right choice. 

Studying with Music: Understanding Why it Might Work

Music has always found a place in human existence, and its prevalence among human cultures extends beyond prehistory. By interlacing harmonies and using mathematical skills to create tunes and mesmerizing melodies, humans have undertaken musical endeavors throughout the past and created numerous instruments. It possibly developed as humans’ motor skills became advanced, alongside their improved rational and calculative potential—thanks to the large cerebral cortex in the brain. The study of music and creating tunes has influenced human societies and cultures since the dawn of civilization. 

Beyond the impact of human evolution on music, it in turn has had an undeniable influence on the way the human brain functions. Music activates both hemispheres of the brain and triggers activity that might impact the neural networks positively in the cortex. A few hypotheses even surmise that it might influence neurogenesis—the creation of new neural connections and networks to improve the way our brains store and retrieve information. According to a few studies conducted in the past, it has been established that classical music for studying has especially proven beneficial. This occurs due to the soothing effect of harmonic patterns and the increase in focus brought on by classical genres. Researchers also noted that listening to music while studying can train your brain to think clearly and zero in on the task at hand. This allows the brain to become better equipped to take notice only of the relevant information. 
The human brain is capable of processing information in bits and pieces by separating them into small packages. By isolating these from the background information processed, the brain tries to instill these bits into stable, long-term memories to be accessed later. Music for studying helps the brain maintain pinpoint attention on the tasks at hand. By helping you remain relaxed and focused, it can often allow you to remain dedicated. It also keeps boredom at bay and aids your academic performance. However, it must be noted that certain forms of music are not ideal when you intend on using them for a night with the books. While this might sound disheartening, music when heard during study breaks still aids with relaxation and promotes mental rejuvenation.

Using Music for Studying: The Benefits

Music can potentially have numerous benefits for students that are looking to spruce up the ways they study. Be sure to pick relaxing tunes for studying, and set aside the ones that might be distracting or chaotic. The intent of using it is to remain focused. However, using mellow genres presents the following perks: 

1. Improves Academic Performance

Music is an efficient tool in enhancing spirits and allows students to combat stress. Anxiety and high-pressure situations are especially prevalent during examinations. They often cloud students’ minds, and this hampers effective preparation. Beating anxiety by playing a few tunes can help you gain clarity. If used to improve studying efforts, soothing tunes are known to help induce composure, concentration, and lucidity. Students can often learn much more from a short span of pointed effort rather than with long durations of study dotted by periods where they have a distracted mind. Upbeat tracks during breaks can also promote motivation and allow students to snap out of anxiety and despair in their drawn-out and often stressful preparatory periods before their exams. 

2. Enhances Cognition

Both scientists and numerous students concur that music helps bring about focus and has cognitive benefits. Songs without lyrics are shown to enhance human capabilities to perform tasks swiftly. This even applies to studying and other scholastic activities such as completing an assignment. Students that listen to steady and calm tunes have been found to do better in their assignments and also perform better overall. That’s not all, the time taken to complete tasks is also reduced, thanks to the sharp focus it brings. Cognitive capacities are improved by music’s ability to trigger neural activity in various parts of the brain simultaneously. Students may also use sounds from nature or just instrumental tunes that can improve their moods. 

3. Has Proven Health Benefits & Beats Stress

Exam-related stress can be a major impediment to your preparations. However, calming notes can help you beat the stress and focus only on your books. Music reduces high heart rates and is also capable of easing blood pressure. All of this works to put you in a relaxed state before you can focus on memorizing the requisite material for your exam. Stress can often cloud memory and make individuals lose track of what they’re doing. This has a largely detrimental effect on your performance and has various implications for your long-term physical health. However, you can keep all of them at bay and remain committed to your study hours with just a few relaxing playlists for studying better. It can help you combine relaxation alongside a regular task such as studying, allowing you to address two concerns with a single solution. If you find yourself to be a little low or concerned about your current preparations, maybe it’s time to begin using music for studying and prep. 

4. Helps Retrieve Memories

Melodies are deeply linked with memories and their retrieval. Like all senses, hearing, too, has a close-knit relationship with the brain’s information processing and storage, alongside the emotions associated with it. For example, music from the past, especially when associated with events or episodes from our lives, often brings back strong memories and emotions we felt during the time. The answer to this lies in the way the human brain processes and stores information. It is often easier for the brain to create memories and store them for longer if an emotional component is involved. It’s the same reason certain songs remind you of your childhood if you listened to them frequently in your younger years.

Another important point relates to how tunes and notes in themselves are capable of stirring numerous emotions within us. Our brains often notice the lyrics, the harmonies, the octaves, as well as how the music makes us feel—locking away the unique essence of it and its associations into a stable memory. This includes information even from the surroundings. The same principle when applied in the case of studying can prove it to be an effective tool. Many students often claim that certain songs heard during their study sessions remind them of what they memorized when listening to those songs. While this might not be the case with everyone, it still helps us link why it might be a great tool to boost memory and help support your learning efforts. 

5. Helps You Study for Longer 

Sometimes, you’re left with no option but to slog it out for extended periods if they’re looking to achieve their desired grades. While this is certainly arduous, it is shown that students that study for long hours with a few tunes chiming in the background have better endurance. This method is capable of combating both mental and physical fatigue. The endorphins released by listening to music when studying can help you stay at your desk for longer. Not only can this enhance the duration of study, but it can also help you remain awake if you’re choosing to burn the midnight oil. By keeping your brain brimming with activity, melodies inhibit sleep and instead provide better awareness of your surroundings and clarity. However, it must also be noted that tunes meant for deep states of relaxation are better suited to put you to sleep rather than keeping you awake. Choose your playlists wisely, and pick a set of songs that are neither too distractive nor too slow. 

6. Boosts Creativity

Music has a deep impact on creativity. While this might be thought to be more advantageous to say, an artist, it also proves highly beneficial for students looking to ace their tests. Studying is not a linear exercise. Often, students are faced with problems and conundrums they need to solve. Instead of a plain and rational approach, students also require a creative temperament to help them get through the challenges. Listening to music while studying can promote lucid yet out-of-the-box creativity, so students are better equipped to solve problems they might encounter when trying to memorize information or to understand concepts. That’s not all, creative methods can also impact the use of reason positively, and students can find newer ways to use tenets set in stone to their benefit. It influences this ability in us due to its potential to tingle parts of the brain responsible for divergent thinking that aids creativity. Several parts of the brain influence this function in human beings; however, music can stimulate them all at the same time. These include the frontal cortex, the hippocampus, and also the parietal lobe of the brain. 

7. Allows for Post-study Relaxation

As already established, music is a great way to calm your senses. This trait can be easily deployed even after you’ve set the books aside. The period after you’re done studying is in fact among the most important, since it’s when your brain ruminates over all the collected information and forms stable memories through newly established networks. For this, rest is crucial. Music, while great for studying, is also a time-tested tool to help you sit back and relax. Soothing sounds, relaxing tunes, and classical compositions are perfect to help you wind down as your brain switches to a more composed state and completes its functions in the background. You can even choose from a variety of relaxing playlists to help you fall asleep after a night full of rigorous studying. By helping your brain slow down and relax, slow compositions can naturally induce sleep and promote organic relaxation, allowing you to wake up rejuvenated and well-rested. Be sure not to compromise on rest. Without sufficient sleep, your brain functions are often hampered and prevent effective memorization—a much-needed component when you’re trying to study effectively.

The Drawbacks of Listening to Music while Studying

While music has numerous benefits on both mind and body, music for studying and when played while prepping for your tests might not be without caveats. Memorization, conceptualization, and recollection of information are complex processes that entail a variety of factors. Though it promotes numerous aspects of your brain activity when indulged in studying and other cerebral activities, the positive effects are tied to various determinants and the type of music you play. Some of the main drawbacks include: 

1. Distracts if Not the Right Kind

Loud music can be more of a distraction than a promoter of pointed focus that’s often needed for a long day with the books. This is especially true for highly lyrical, intensely melodious, and rap music. These forms are capable of distracting you and derailing your efforts instead of aiding them. If you’re looking to use it to study, it’s always wise to stick to genres that are rather soft and conducive to focus and learning. Loud noises and expressive lyrics often prevent you from studying properly and shift your focus to the song instead. Such varieties can even cause you to lose out on information processing due to the disproportionate effect it has on reading and unpacking data. If you tend to listen to music that belongs to such genres, try adding these songs to a playlist you can listen to during your breaks or during other times of the day for better results. 

2. Consumes Significant Cognitive Power

Music, while engaging the brain, also consumes a significant amount of cognitive power. Despite the many claims that humans can be trained to multitask, cognitive psychologists find that multitasking has barely ever been a human forte. Several neuropsychologists suggest that multitasking might end up reducing the efficiency of the brain and complicate even simple tasks. Many students might find it hard to focus on studying with music playing in the background. This is because of the rationing of cognitive power between two different tasks—making sense of background noise and studying. Students that use music for studying might also find it difficult to navigate complex concepts mentioned in their textbooks for the same reason. To mitigate this, alternating between phases of silence might help with doing justice to the more convoluted portions of the syllabus while also remaining focused when navigating the simpler parts. 

3. Is Not Suited to Last Minute Prep

Trying to incorporate music for studying at the last minute might be more damaging than beneficial. Switching to a new regimen just before an important exam or task might confuse your brain and scatter your thoughts. Not only does your brain take time to understand how you can begin studying with music, but it also requires a certain degree of effort for individuals that aren’t innately suited to the practice. If you’re planning on playing a few tunes when you’re getting ready for a last-minute cram session, chances are that you might also jeopardize your overall prep. Pick a time between your semester or when classes and schedules are slow to test out a new study method such as studying with music playing in the background. 

4. Hampers Working Memory

Working memory is a crucial part of grasping information that involves intricate concepts, mathematical calculations, event sequences, and arbitrary postulations. Music can hamper working memory by reducing the capacity of the brain. Working memory is crucial for students looking to cover vast swathes of their coursework in a given duration of time. Since it might consume a portion of the brain’s capacity to engage working memory, some students might find it difficult to focus on learning concepts that are heavy on conceptualization and problem-solving skills. Moreover, applicative sciences and mathematics are even more demanding when it comes to cognitive power and the training of working memory. Staying away from the jukebox might just be the ideal way to go when prepping for subjects of the analytical bent.

Tips to Pick a Study Playlist

Though prudence is of the essence when you’re trying to use music for studying, its benefits can be significant for those who can harness them. Here are a few suggestions on how you can pick a playlist to help you study better: 

1. Avoid Loud Music

Excessively loud tones and jarring beats can cause significant distractions. Instead, pick tracks with soft melodies and a slow tempo to help you study. Most of all, ensure that you choose relaxing music so your mind remains focused on the tasks at hand. 

2. Set Aside Wordy & Lyrical Genres

Songs with lyrics or rap sequences often end up engaging you with them instead of helping you train your focus on studying. This is even more prominent when the music contains lyrics in languages you understand. Instead, pick classical music for studying. If you’re not too fond of it, you might even want to choose a calming instrumental song to help you disconnect from the environment and remain committed to your prep. 

3. Turn down the Volume

Keeping the volume low makes music more of a background element rather than something immediate—a stimulus your brain will tend to focus on. Maintaining the volume at a hearable yet soft level will allow you to capitalize on the benefits while you continue cramming at the study table. 

4. Use Music You Don’t Associate With

Music being a complex mode of expression, often has deep impacts on the human mind and emotion. If you’re looking to use it to study, ensure that your playlist remains free of songs that you feel strongly about. Given that music is also capable of triggering memories, you might want to consider keeping your favorites out of the playlist and instead choose songs that you do not really know about. 

5. Stay Away from Platforms with Commercials

Ads between songs are capable of startling you and drawing your attention away from studying. Try and pick songs from portals that are free of ads. Losing your attention can be costly when you’re looking to study for prolonged periods. 

While music can be a great addition to your study schedule, it depends on the individual on how effective a study aid it can potentially prove to be. Try using it for studying at least for a few weeks before you assess your progress.