The effects of listening to healing beat music on adults’ recovery from exposure to stressful stimuli: A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Musical auditory stimulation can affect the brain and autonomic nervous system, resulting in psychological and physical relaxation. In particular, listening to healing beat music with a tempo synchronized with an individual's heart rate can make a person feel comfortable. This study investigated whether healing beat music, utilized as a heartbeat-matched auditory stimulus, could be employed to improve patient recovery after exposure to stressful stimuli. METHODS: This study was a randomized controlled trial and participants were adults above age of 20 who voluntarily participated. As outcome variables, stress index, BIS index, sympathetic nerve activity, and blood pressure were measured and compared at 5 min intervals. RESULTS: Following the treatment, the stress index (F = 3.78, p < .001), BIS index (F = 5.61, p < .001), and systolic blood pressure (F = 3.14, p =.019) of the a healing beat music listening group (HBMG) were significantly lower than those of the control group (CG). More specifically, the stress index (P <.05) and the BIS index (P <.05) of the HBMG were lower than the indices of the preferred music listening group (PMG) and the CG at 30 min. CONCLUSIONS: Listening to healing beat music with a tempo synchronized with the heart rates of the participants had the effect of lowering stress index and systolic pressure. Accordingly, healing beat music may be utilized as a treatment method to relieve stress in both clinical and daily life contexts.