Listening to music while studying?

It has become a very common practice to listen to music while studying. Music can really help us get through boring, repetitive, and mindless tasks. But should we split our brains and focus on music and something like studying or reading, which requires complete attention and focus simultaneously? Does listening to music really help or is it just a hoax? Does it have cons that undermine its pros? These are the questions this article will answer.

Studying can get quite boring sometimes. Especially when you have to pull an all-nighter and get the assignment done and the project submitted. It can really help you divert your attention from the stress and anxiety of a deadline to the calm and soul of music while getting done what you have to. Sometimes, when you have to go through a similar set of problems that you solved the other day, you listen to music and then go about the work you have at hand.

Sometimes you’re just in a very loud and distracting environment and you can’t go somewhere else, you put your headphones on and listen to organized chaos. Because at least that’s not distracting. Or is it?

The fact that you’re getting the work done is great. But is it as efficient as you would want it to be?

Listening to music while studying: The Pros.

1. I am in a FLOW STATE!: The thing about listening to music while studying that’s so helpful is that it makes us unaware. Music makes us unaware of what’s happening in our surroundings or to our bodies. This might depend on the individual. However, we lose focus of what we shouldn’t focus on which is exactly what we’re supposed to do. A study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology found that listening to instrumental music in the background had a positive impact on cognitive tasks requiring focused attention. However, music with lyrics was found to be more distracting and had a negative impact on task performance.

2. Feels-Like-Unstoppable: Listening to instrumental music can increase your stamina to work on something like anything. These are not my words. These are the results of actual research. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that surgeons who listened to music experienced reduced stress and increased motivation during surgical procedures. Similarly, a study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology showed that participants who listened to upbeat music experienced improved moods and higher levels of motivation.

3. Am I a Robot?: Music increases cognitive performance and as mentioned earlier, focus. Especially, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart plays a specific role here. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer and pianist of the classical era. Renowned for his prodigious talent, Mozart's vast body of work encompasses symphonies, operas, chamber music, and piano compositions, leaving an indelible mark on the history of Western classical music.) Research conducted by Dr. Frances Rauscher and her colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, suggested that listening to Mozart's music may have a temporary positive effect on spatial-temporal reasoning, often referred to as the "Mozart effect." However, subsequent studies have had mixed results, and the overall impact on long-term cognitive abilities remains uncertain.

4. This is so calming!: Know how those specific songs and melodies can bring your heart to rest and mind at peace? Music does an incredible job at relieving stress and anxiety and that does not need to be proven. Everybody knows that. A study published in the Journal of Music Therapy demonstrated that listening to relaxing music significantly reduced stress and anxiety levels in university students. Music with a slower tempo, minimal lyrics, and soothing melodies tends to have a calming effect on the listener. This feeling of calm can help us increase our productivity in a significant way. As I’m writing this article, I’m listening to music. Classical, to be specific.

Does this work for everyone, though?

Every human being is different. If something works for someone, it’s nowhere near necessary that it will work for someone else. That’s a well-established fact by now. In a similar way, listening to music while studying, working, or writing doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. Usually, it’s either two things. Silence makes us uncomfortable or loudness makes us lose focus. Some people don’t get uncomfortable in silence while others don’t find loudness distracting. So, they might not need music for focusing.

A study published in PLOS ONE suggested that the impact of music on cognitive tasks is highly dependent on individual preferences. Participants who were allowed to choose their preferred music while working on cognitive tasks demonstrated better performance compared to those who listened to music they disliked or worked in silence.

And the research speaks for itself.

Now, we move on to the cons.

Listening to music while studying: The Cons.

As talked about earlier, music can and has proved to be very helpful during tasks that are mindless, repetitive, and don’t really require all your cognitive resources. These cons are particularly targeted for the tasks that require a bit more mental awareness and demand your cognitive resources.

1. I keep singing these lyrics argh!: Distraction. Music with lyrics can drift your focus away easily from the task at hand. It may cause your focus to shift to the music rather than the material you are studying, leading to reduced productivity and comprehension.

2. Don’t multitask your brain: Processing music requires your cognitive resources, and if you keep lending these resources to everything that you are doing, then it’s not going to help you any more than studying while you feel sleepy. It’s just like half of you are working. Because I can’t sing a song simultaneously while reading a textbook. Might be a me problem, I don’t know!

3. That’s not my type!: Everyone has different tastes in music, and what may be enjoyable for one person can be distracting or irritating for another. If you're in an environment where others are listening to different genres of music that you find unappealing, it can create additional distractions and decrease your focus.

4. I can’t sleep😭: If you listen to music while working or studying close to bedtime, it can interfere with your ability to wind down and relax. Stimulating music or excessive noise can make it harder to achieve the state of calmness needed for quality sleep.

These were the pros and cons of listening to music while studying. If you want to, you can experiment with different types and approaches and see which ones work best for you. Find what works best for you and keep running after it until you make it work best for you.