Music has become our constant companion – we constantly hear it from TV, in supermarkets, during sporting events, in cafes and restaurants. In addition, many people do not part with music at home, at work, in the gym, in the car and even just during walks. But does constant listening to music, especially with headphones, cause harm? In fact, according to scientists, listening to music can be both beneficial and harmful. It depends on many factors – the person himself, the type of music, as well as the peculiarities of listening to it.
Constantly listening to music can have both positive and negative effects. Photo source: classpic.ru
Constantly listening to music can be useful
It may seem strange, but some studies have shown that music can help during study or work, both physical and mental. Music can increase concentration and can even motivate you to solve problems. However, the effect of listening depends largely on the person. Some people have higher performance and concentration in complete silence.
Most likely, the reason is that the human brain's multitasking ability is very limited. And it can vary from person to person. Some people are good at doing two things at once, while others are not so good.
Listening to music can improve concentration and motivate. Photo source: lifehacker.ru
Listening to music, of course, cannot be called a full-fledged activity, however, it also requires some work from our brain. In addition, the style of music, the activity that a person is engaged in, as well as the degree of complexity of the tasks that he solves are important.
What music improves concentration
Scientists have conducted a series of studies to find out what kind of music has the best effect on studying and working. As it turned out, instrumental or familiar music works best in this regard, rather than music with lyrics or unfamiliar compositions. The reason is easy to understand – when a person listens to music with lyrics or unfamiliar tracks, they concentrate on it more strongly. The brain begins to process and remember new information, which results in additional stress.
Also, one study showed that fast and quiet music has the most positive effect on learning. However, loud fast and slow music, as well as slow compositions played at low volume, make learning more difficult.
It is better to turn on fast music for sports. Photo source: geekville.ru
Another study showed that upbeat music with a higher tempo can motivate and also help solve problems that require movement. For example, it makes sense to turn on such music in the gym or at home while cleaning.
Scientists also found that the more difficult your task, the more likely it is that music can start to do harm instead of benefit. For example, when a person needs to remember some information, learn something new or solve some problems, it is better to turn off the music. As a rule, at such moments, a person himself stops listening to music.
The style of music also matters. We previously reported that classical music has a number of beneficial properties. It not only improves brain function, but also has a number of other positive effects, such as increasing the pain threshold.
Listening to music on headphones in itself does not have any negative consequences. Photo source: mosregtoday.ru
Is it harmful to listen to music on headphones
You may have heard the opinion that listening to music with headphones is harmful because it damages your hearing. On the one hand, the source of the sound does not matter – in any case, the same sound wave reaches the hearing organs. Much more important is the volume at which a person listens to music. Too much volume can damage your hearing. This happens because loud sounds can destroy tiny, thin hair-like structures in the inner ear that help us hear.
As a rule, people listen to loud music with headphones because loud sound does not disturb others. Therefore, from this point of view, headphones can really be harmful. Moreover, hearing loss due to loud music happens much more often than you might think. According to scientists, listening to music with headphones at high volume can deprive 1.3 billion people in the world of hearing.
It is dangerous to listen to music at high volume on headphones. Photo source: dzen.ru
It must be said that damage to the inner ear can occur as a result of both a single exposure to a sound that is too loud and repeated exposure to less loud sounds over a long period of time – months or years. This means that after listening to loud music on headphones once, a person may not feel any changes in hearing, but gradually it can deteriorate unnoticed by a person.
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Some parts of the hearing organs can recover over time on their own, but the inner ear does not recover. Therefore, scientists do not recommend listening to music at a volume above 70 dB. And even more so, you should not listen to loud music for a long time.