The Benefits of Music For Studying
I’m sure you’ve heard the idea that listening to music whilst you’re studying will make you more distracted, retain less, and in general make your revision less effective. That’s not necessarily true though. Many people cannot study without music but others need pin-drop silence to study.
The right type of music can be a great tool to increase your productivity while studying. Music can boost your mood, motivation, and memory – but not for everyone.
Anyone who’s listened to their favorite song knows just how much hearing it can make you excited but there are some scientifically backed-up benefits to this too. Listening to music stimulates multiple reward centers in the brain. In a 2019 study, scientists realized that participants would make choices that allowed them to activate the reward center in the brain. By using music as a reward, we can be motivated to do things that we may enjoy less – like revision. This could mean blasting some of your favorite songs once you finish a task you hate or listening to music you enjoy when doing something boring. In another study, it was concluded that music helps concentration, alleviates boredom, and helps relaxation – but these effects were mainly reported with tasks that didn’t require a high cognitive ability.
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Beyond just giving you motivation, music can really help your memory. Music activates both sides of your brain which in turn improves your memory drastically. Music engages the predictive and attentive areas in the brain, which are key to aiding memory and how the brain organizes information. Furthermore, if you listen multiple times to a particular type of song or genre of music across study sessions it can aid your memory recall, as the information you learn is linked to the emotional response that the music creates (which helps recall later). Music is even a great tool for remembering key pieces of information. Some students even find it helpful to set information to the beat of music, which can help with learning and memory retention by creating a rhythmic pattern that helps the brain organize and process information.
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Music also improves your mood – which allows you to work to the best of your ability. Music reduces stress as it decreases blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety levels. It’s a great way to process emotions and strengthen your emotional resolve. When you listen to music, it releases dopamine in your brain, which can improve your mood, reduce stress, and boost your overall wellbeing. This chemical reaction can enhance your motivation and focus, making it easier to tackle challenging tasks like studying.
Pro tip: in addition to listening to the right kind of background music, eating well by having a balanced diet with plenty of brain-boosting foods can improve focus and enhance productivity while studying.
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Music can inspire enthusiasm and drive, but it is important to choose your music so that it’s appropriate for the type of task at hand. Music is a helpful motivator when doing tasks that require less memory capacity but music can be an impediment when reading as reading complex pieces as listening to music takes up the same part of the brain. Some people with better memory capacity, however, are able to simultaneously listen to music and read as they are less affected. It has also been found that listening to instrumental music is far more effective for studying than listening to music with lyrics. This seems to be because music with lyrics requires more memory capacity which can diminish the attention we are giving to other learning tasks.
It has also be shown that listening to highly repetitive music with narrow tonal range allows people to do better than in situations with complex music or no music. This is why many students find electronic music a particularly useful study tool.
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Music has a number of impressive benefits when you’re studying – especially the right type of music. It can be a motivator, a memory aid and a mood booster. While it may take some experimenting to discover which style of music best suits your learning, the benefits of finding your optimal study music can significantly improve your focus, productivity, and academic performance.
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