This Type of Music Is Like an Auditory Chill Pill

Tuned Up: Music can cheer us up, get us pumped, and make us cry. Now, new research has found it can also improve anxiety symptoms — but not just any music. The benefits come from listening to auditory beat stimulation (ABS), a category that includes binaural beats. In ABS, two different sound frequencies combine to form a new third frequency that brainwaves sync with (called brainwave entrainment). 

The Study: For this study, researchers randomly placed 144 people taking medication for mild anxiety into one of four groups. One group listened to pink noise, and the other three listened to music embedded with ABS for 12, 24, or 36 minutes, respectively. The three ABS groups all outperformed the pink-noise group, but the 24-minute ABS group experienced the most benefit.

The Takeaway: Listening to ABS for 24 or 36 minutes had the same degree of symptom improvement, but researchers gave 24 minutes a slight edge simply for its practicality. Want to try it yourself? Music streaming platforms have ready-made binaural beats playlists, like this one on Spotify. (We’ve been listening to that playlist for the past week and while this is anecdotal, it does seem to work.)

Keep in Mind: ABS is meant to complement other anxiety treatments, not replace them. Make sure you’re listening to binaural beats through headphones, as you need to hear a different frequency in each ear.