Is It Good To Listen To Music With Headphones On While Studying?

We all know that music plays a significant role in our lives. But you may have seen lots of people listening to music while studying. Why do they do that? Is it good? Does music help them study? To find answers to all these questions, you need to keep reading!

If you are also one of those people who plug in their headphones to listen to music while studying, or you find this listening to music plus studying act strange, then you need to know the science behind this.

Music has a very potent effect on your brain! It improves the functions of the brain. It has proven its contribution in improving cognitive performance. Background music improves cognitive work performance.

When you listen to music while studying, you and your brain is multitasking; doing two activities at the same time. Always keep in mind that hearing music is in no way an inactive activity. Even if you don’t pay attention to music while listening, your brain will. Thus, it causes an increase in your energy levels. It boosts your mood and the abilities of mental processing as well.

Listening to music also creates an interference with all your other mental activities going. When the brain picks up the song's lyrics stimuli, it will activate its language centers which are concerned about writing, reading and listening.

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The activation of the brain's language centers leads to an interconnection between the reading and the lyrical processing. Numerous types of research have shown that individuals are likely to recall the information in those environments that are similar in which the information was learned. Music involves the autonomous nervous system of the body. It has the power to control your emotions and physiological functions.

It has been proven that music has numerous positive effects on the body and brain of a human being. Listening to music will also make the brain to send signals for lowering the cortisol; the stress hormone. One other way in which listening to music affects our mood is through the development of some brain chemicals just like the rapid release of dopamine that is a pleasure hormone.

Another hormone that is released while you listen to your favorite music is the oxytocin which includes happiness and pleasure. Music is a kind of stimulant that will speed up your pulse and breath, drawing attention away from boredom, fatigue, and stress.

You may have heard that music helps you concentrate while studying. It’s true! Listening to your favorite kind of music relieves stress during those busy tough semesters. It is an effective remedy to reduce stress not just for healthy people but for people with health troubles as well. It decreases your blood pressure and anxiety levels.

So, it prepares your body for studying with ease. Students dealing with anxiety face difficulties while studying but listening to music can help them. Students with anxiety must pop in their headphones before and while studying to feel more relaxed. Music also helps students improve their studying performance.

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Now, let’s just move on the numerous amazing benefits that music has on you while studying.

• It makes studying more fun

No more boring studying! Listening to music will definitely give you a boost while studying. You can’t deny that university study life would be much more tedious and dull without music. Plus, you need this extra confidence boost that comes from music. You can never prepare for an exam if you are feeling depressed. As mentioned above, it is also proven scientifically that listening to music releases dopamine which makes you happier, relaxed and motivated.

• Music enhances your visualization and memory

The most famous claim about listening to music is that it improves visualization and memory. Classical music will, in fact, progress the spatial-temporal thinking and your ability to mentally manipulate forms. The effect of Mozart emphasized that listening to music is a remedy for a peaceful mind, body, and soul.

The melodies have an impact on your different mental functions like clarity and creativity. Listening to your favorite music while studying can improve the mental abilities considerably.

• More focus and less Anxious

Music listening is the best element that helps you improve your concentration and relax. One thing confirmed is that some types of music can improve the cognitive functions and levels of concentration of the brain that are important when you study. Music makes the brain to pay more attention to your task while staying totally stress-free. Music effect involves the parts of the brain that pay attention, predict and updates the event in your memory. It helps you clear your mind and relax which allows you to concentrate on your test preparation easily.

• Your brain exercises because of music

Music causes cognitive brain exercise that trains it for future challenges. People who listen to music have healthier brains. Benefits don't essentially depend on the type of music you listen, but on how well the brain sticks to the song pattern.

• It avoids distractions

You can never concentrate on your work when there are so many distractions. Many people put on headphones and listen to music while studying so they can avoid any sort of distraction. This helps students to concentrate and focus more on their studying than nearby noisy things.

With so many benefits, listening to music while studying also has some disadvantages. It might be quite distracting for some students to listen to music when they study.

• Distracting lyrics

Those students who are unable to do multi-tasking will have a problem listening to music while they study. The lyrics of the songs can be very distracting for them and keeps them out of focus. The students lose focus and concentrate more on the lyrics. Some are unable to perform creative tasks like writing or reading, being inefficient to absorb some information.

• Loud music can be dangerous

Loud music can have a harmful effect on students’ comprehensive reading and mood, making it harder for them to focus. Listening to loud music can also damage the hearing ability.

• Harder to memorize

Some students take help of the music to learn to memorize their work. This can have an adverse effect when they are made to sit in a silent environment during exams which means it hard to them to recall what they learned.

Music choice is an important factor that affects your studies because fast or loud music can make it difficult for you to concentrate. It is obvious that you prefer listening to your favorite music while studying but not all types of music will have the correct effect. There are some kinds of music that are better suited for your study tasks. The scientists and researchers suggest that the most helpful study tools are instrumental, classical and soft non-vocal when it comes to music.

Classical music: It improves your concentration. Concepts like the Mozart effect progress the temporal-spatial reasoning and helps in improving the cognitive state. Listening to classical music while studying also improves your logical abilities as the brain begins to relax. A great example of this is that the surgeons tend to listen to classical music while they perform surgery for long hours to keep them more relaxed and focused. 

Electronic upbeat music: From leisurely ambient music with extended drones to electronic fast beats, numerous songs serve as good music options for studying. Listening to electrical guitars is beneficial when not too heavy as well. 

Some students believe that the best music in which they can study more strongly is the post-rock music in which the bands prefer more on the music than vocals. So, this type of music becomes an ideal choice to listen when they study because there no lyrics to distract them. Now, the students can create their own electric compositions on their laptops to listen while studying.

Avoid listening to the radio while the study because the chit-chat and conversations of the presenter might cause you to lose focus.

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The volume of music is an imperative factor that has to be kept in mind while you study. Make sure you set the volume to a moderate level. Lower the volume, the better for you! The main thing to listen to music is to keep slight background music while you study. A moderate volume noise level can improve the performance of a person in creative tasks.

However, information and creativity are damaged if the volume is too loud or high. It is better to avoid heavy music with deep bass tones because it will generate a recurring sound of ' thudding' which is more distractive than helpful.

In the end, music’s effect on the study routine depends entirely on the student and his own learning style. If students get distracted very easily, then avoid music so that they can concentrate on their work. In contrast, those students who work better when they multi-task might find that music will help them to concentrate better. Music helps them to grasp information more efficiently.