Listening to SLIPKNOT might ease your headache… but scientists say there’s a catch

Whether it’s Adele, Slipknot or the Bee Gees, we all have our favorite music.

Now researchers have found that listening to our favorite songs can help reduce the feeling of pain.

Canadian scientists recruited 63 people who felt moderately painful heat on the inside of their forearm—a sensation similar to that of a hot teacup against your skin.

They heard fragments of music that lasted about seven minutes.

Compared to control tracks or silence, listening to their favorite music significantly reduced participants’ pain intensity and discomfort.

Canadian scientists recruited 63 people who felt moderately painful heat on the inside of their forearm—a sensation similar to that of a hot teacup against your skin. In the photo: Adele

However, unfamiliar relaxation songs did not have the same effect.

The researchers also investigated whether musical themes had an influence. To do this, they asked participants about their emotional reactions to their favorite music and assigned them themes: energizing or stimulating, upbeat or upbeat, calming or relaxing, and moving or bittersweet.

Those who experienced moving or bittersweet emotions to their favorite songs had even lower pain ratings.

Author Darius Valevicius of the University of Montreal said: “In our study, we show that the favorite music chosen by study participants has a much greater impact on the relief of acute thermal pain than unfamiliar, relaxing music.”

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“We also found that emotional responses play a very important role in predicting whether music has an impact on pain.”

“We found that reports of moving or bittersweet emotional experiences appeared to lead to lower ratings of pain unpleasantness, which were attributed to more intense musical enjoyment and more musical chills.”

Reduced sensitivity to pain, also called hypoalgesia, can occur when the sensation of pain is blocked before it is recognized by the brain.

The researchers said that although what causes musical chills is not yet fully understood, it appears to indicate a neurophysiological process that effectively blocks pain signals.

In some people, a cold may manifest as tingling, chills or goosebumps.

The team also pointed out limitations to their study, such as how long participants listened to musical samples.

They said listening to relaxing music for a longer period of time could have stronger effects than the shorter songs participants listened to.

Mr. Valevicius added: “Especially when it comes to the emotional themes in favorite music such as moving/bittersweet, we are exploring new dimensions of the psychology of listening to music that are not yet well understood, especially in relation to pain relief.”

“For this reason, we have limited data, although the preliminary results are quite conclusive.”

The results were published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research.