If asked to describe “healing” music, there’s a fair chance you’d think of lapping waves, distant gongs, perhaps even — horror of horrors — panpipes. In fact, a growing body of research is showing that all kinds of music can be used to hack the brain to produce positive effects ranging from lowering stress to sleeping better, focusing harder and even keeping the brain young. No whale sounds required.
A study at McGill University, Montreal, published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, revealed that bittersweet and moving music worked best to reduce physical pain, whereas supposedly “relaxing” music did very little. When the 63 participants listened to their all-time favourite tracks — which ranged from Ed Sheeran to Tchaikovsky — they experienced a reduction
