Studying is no piece of cake: it takes a lot of perseverance and self-composure to overcome all the stress related to college life, exams, assignment deadlines, and other things that can undermine your academic performance. To manage such challenges, you need to come up with a list of things that relax you, reduce your stress and anxiety. It could be sports, painting, taking long walks, writing stories, doing photography, or anything else that can distract you from worry. Recent studies suggest that music can also be a perfect tool for that: it holds the power of relaxing your body and mind, which eventually has a very positive effect on your cognitive performance.
How Music Affects Your Brain and Helps You Study
There is a myriad of studies proving just how helpful music can be when it comes to studying. Given the right choice of genre, you can give your brain a considerable boost by activating its both hemispheres, which, in turn, leads to improved memory and maximized learning experience.
Taking a more detailed look at the matter, here are the main benefits of music in regards to your brain:
It Reduces Stress
As you find yourself in the middle of an academic semester, being bombarded with assignments to complete and books to read, music can be the beacon of hope for you to get rid of all of that overwhelming stress. Listening to soothing music is proved to decrease heart rate and blood pressure. However, when you feel like there is no way you can manage all the assignments and the stress is just getting out of hand – google “Service – write my essay” and see if you can find someone to help you out.
It Tackles Test Anxiety and Improves Academic Performance
Anxiety and overthinking can be crippling for some students. Listening to relaxing music is like getting a massage: it can help you forget about your troubles for a while so that you could focus on your tasks. Music usually also helps people perform better under high pressure. It’s like a wall you put between yourself and the external world to study in peace, with no rush or worry. Furthermore, you can also go for upbeat music. It will give you that energy and motivation to keep going and working even if progress doesn’t come easy (and it usually doesn’t).
What Music You Should Listen to
Now, before you think, “Oh, finally, a solution!” it’s not that easy. Not all music genres will boost your academic performance. In fact, some of them might do the opposite and distract you from investing your attention in studying. Here are the main genres you should focus on when studying:
Classical music
It’s not that common to be into classical music these days. However, there is a scientific theory called “the Mozart Effect,” which proves that classical music improves health and well-being. One of the explanations lies in the fact that there are no words to distract you from studying, just a melody to accompany an efficient thought process. Studies suggest that classical music helps students do 12% better on their exams. Reason enough to find a favorite classical music composer, isn’t it?
Relaxing Music
Similar to nature music, relaxing music is often perfect to get into a deep state of work and not get distracted by lyrics. It’s best suited to those deep thinking tasks and not monotonous work. You can find a range of relaxing music without copyright online easily.
Nature Music
If you want to enhance your concentration and cognitive function, consider listening to some sounds of nature like flowing water, waves crashing, or a babbling spring. Most natural sounds are quite soothing; they have been found to also improve moods and productivity in people.
Whatever Music with a Moderate Beat
Some studies suggest that as long as your music is between 50 to 80 beats per minute, it will still help you stay focused and efficient. Thus, you can listen to some of your favorite songs, even the ones you already know by heart, and they will not distract you from your exam preparation. Among some of the most popular songs that fall within this beat range are Adele’s “Chasing Pavements,” Bruno Mars’ “The Lazy Song,” and Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors.”
Music is quite often a rescue. It can both motivate you to push harder with your studies as well as to relax you and let you catch a break from intense studying and exhausting schedules. You need to find your own sweet spot and see what kind of music empowers you to be a better learner rather than distracting you from meeting deadlines and focusing on exam preparation. Keeping the aforementioned tips in mind, you can do some research on the types of music you enjoy listening to when doing some cognitive tasks and create a playlist that will enhance your academic performance. After all, studying doesn’t have to be a struggle; it is you who gets to decide whether it will be an enjoyable experience or a stage in your life you want to be over as soon as possible.