Music helps pain. Did you know that your favorite songs could work like medicine for pain? Scientists discovered that the music you really love might help reduce how much pain you feel, especially if it’s a song that touches your heart.

How Music Helps Pain

People have known for a while that music can help with pain. Some new studies even show that babies might feel less pain when they hear music. But what’s really interesting is that the music you choose as your favorite might be better at reducing pain than relaxing music picked for you.

Emotions and Music

Scientists now think that how a song makes you feel matters for reducing pain. Darius Valevicius, from McGill University, said that favorite songs can ease pain just as much as a painkiller you buy from a store, like Advil.

The Study

To test this idea, 63 people went to a special lab. They had to say how much pain they felt while different types of music played. They listened to their favorite songs, music meant to relax them, random music, and also had times of no sound. They had to say how much their pain hurt during each type of music.

What They Found

The study showed that when people listened to their favorite songs, they felt the pain wasn’t as bad as when there was no sound or random music. But interestingly, the relaxing music didn’t help with pain as much.

Valevicius said that the results weren’t just because people thought the music would help. It seemed like the better people felt about the music, the less they felt the pain was bad, but this didn’t really match with how strong the pain was.

Understanding the Connection

More research found that songs that gave people “chills” seemed to make pain feel less bad. These “chills” might block some pain signals, and how much people liked the music seemed to affect how they felt about the pain.

Mysterious Music

Songs that made people feel more emotional or sad seemed to give them more “chills” and they liked these songs more. But it’s still not very clear if these emotional songs directly make pain better. Scientists don’t know if everyone feels better with these songs or if only some people do.

Final Thoughts

Even though there’s more to learn, this study tells us that music, especially the music you really love, might help with pain. It’s not only about the sound but also about how the music makes you feel. This suggests that people who feel pain might feel better if they choose their own music to listen to, making their experience more comfortable.