Walk faster or slower than the beat of the song stuck in your head. This allows you to use body movement to disturb your memory of the musical tempo, which can interrupt and end the seemingly automatic mental replay. Divert your attention from the music by engaging in other activities.
Are earworms ever worrisome? Not all “stuck songs” are benign. Sometimes they occur with obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychotic syndromes, migraine headaches, unusual forms of epilepsy, or a condition known as palinacousis — when you continue to hear a sound long after it has disappeared.
Some people refer to “earworms” as stuck melodies, “stuck thoughts,” of “obsessive thoughts.” “Ear worms” are common symptoms of anxiety and symptoms of chronic stress. Reducing anxious behavior and stress can cause the cessation of “ear worms.” However, some researchers suggest chewing gum.
A: You're not alone. According to experts, 98% of us get stuck on a song, known as an earworm. Certain people are more prone to earworms. Those with obsessive-compulsive disorder or who have obsessive thinking styles experience this phenomenon more often.
There are certain musical characteristics that make songs more likely to become earworms, such as if the piece is repetitive, if there is a longer duration of certain notes, if intervals between the notes are smaller.
For controlling the earworm, use an inexpensive white mineral oil (medicinal oil) or, if you can buy it already mixed, a refined mineral oil containing 0.2 percent of pyrethrins. The latter is more effective. One pint will treat about 600 ears.
For those with mental health issues or other neurological conditions, earworms can sometimes cause stress or obsession and, in rare cases, are experienced during migraine and epileptic attacks. Persistent earworms—those lasting more than 24 hours—may be caused by a number of different illnesses and medical conditions.
Research indicates that nine out of ten people have experienced earworms that have lasted for an hour or longer. A few unfortunate folks even report having a song stuck in their heads for a year or more. (You can spot them because they run around yelling, “AAAHHH! Get this song out of my head!”)
Earworms are most often harmless. “They're part of a healthy brain,” said Silbersweig. But in rare cases, they indicate certain medical conditions. People with OCD, for example, have been shown to have earworms during times of stress.
Starting a conversation, listening to talk radio or simply listening to another song can help distract people from their earworms. The reason behind this method is similar to Beaman's gum chewing scenario. Listening to other music or talk, Jakubowski said, uses similar brain resources as the earworm.
Previous research has shown a person might be more prone to earworms if they are constantly exposed to music, and certain personality traits — such as obsessive-compulsive or neurotic tendencies — can make people more likely to get songs stuck in their heads.
The researchers found partial support for the theory that earworms occur as a result of the Zeigarnik Effect, in which our minds get stuck on incomplete mental processes. This theory suggests that our brains can get "hung up," when we hear an incomplete song that we do not know well.
According to research by James Kellaris, 98% of individuals experience earworms. Women and men experience the phenomenon equally often, but earworms tend to last longer for women and irritate them more.
Our brain attaches memories to them making it difficult to forget them. Earworms may be part of the same “involuntary memory” that is responsible for us thinking about a friend we haven't seen in a long time randomly. Songs that are simple, repetitive, and contain some incongruity are most likely to become stuck.
These songs, often called earworms, are usually faster, with a fairly generic and easy-to-remember melody but with some particular intervals, such as leaps or repetitions, that set them apart from the average pop song, according to the first large-scale study of earworms.
“Our brains continue to process music even when none is playing, including apparently while we are asleep,” Scullin said. “Everyone knows that music listening feels good. Adolescents and young adults routinely listen to music near bedtime.
It is a ubiquitous phenomenon and, for most people, recurs frequently. It is not an actual hallucination because the absence of an immediate stimulus is recognized and no out of the ordinary significance is attributed to the content of the music.
Musical obsessions are one of the many clinical features of OCD. Many people may experience involuntary musical imagery (INMI) or "earworms".
Earworms disrupt sleep, hurt sleep quality, and can also be associated with daytime functioning problems.
Psychologically, earworms are a 'cognitive itch': the brain automatically itches back, resulting in a vicious loop. The more one tries to suppress the songs, the more their impetus increases, a mental process known as ironic process theory. Those most at risk for SSS are: females, youth, and patients with OCD.
A new study shows that it's possible to chew away the earworms with a couple sticks of your favorite gum. How this works is intriguing. Rather than distracting your brain from the insidious tune, the study suggests that chewing gum hijacks the same auditory mechanism your brain uses to replay it.
Summary: An effective solution to get rid of earworms, those annoying tunes that keep on re-playing in never ending loops in our heads, has been found. The best way to block obsessive melodies is neither to read a good novel nor solve complex anagrams but, simply, to chew gum.
Memory triggers, like returning to a certain place or seeing a word or phrase associated with a song, can push the earworm's play button. The brain may be more likely to mull over a tune when it's bored or worried, as well.