The Science Behind Listening to Christmas Music: How It Affects Your Brain
For many people, Christmas music makes them feel happy and ready to enjoy the season with their family and friends. They listen to some songs throughout the entire month of December and they always smile when they hear their favorites. However, for some people listen to Christmas music becomes a headache. After all, have you ever heard someone say they hate Christmas music?
The effects of listening to Christmas music can be very uplifting. However, what about those people who say they absolutely hate listening to it? Does it mean that they are the Grinch? Absolutely not! A new study has found that when Christmas music is played constantly for many months before Christmas, people start to put more mental effort into blocking the Christmas music out. In turn, they feel tired and more stressed. Hence, they naturally start to feel like it is the music that is making them feel like everything is wrong. In reality, it really is the music.
The Emotional Benefits of Putting on Your Favorite Festive Tunes
However, it is not the fact that it is Christmas music that makes them like this. Instead, it really boils down to hearing the same song playing over and over again. For those who never feel like this, chances are they are already blocking out the repetitive songs and not really paying attention. So, does this mean that you shouldn’t listen to music? Absolutely not.
The key is to find the Christmas music that you like to listen to and make sure that there is a variety that you listen to. Instead of playing your favorite song on repeat all day long, mix it up. Listen to the classic tunes you love, but put in some new releases. When you do this, you are getting the spirit lifting benefits of listening to the music without taking a chance that you are going to start feeling like people should start calling you the Grinch.
When should you start listening to Christmas music? For many people, they start listening as soon as the weather turns cool because they are looking forward to this holiday. Other people think that many stores start playing this music way too soon. In all honesty, when you start to listen to this music is all about when you want to listen. There is nothing that states you have to turn on Christmas music just because it is December. However, if you do not often do this, you may find that listening to some of these uplifting tunes is going to help you get more into the Christmas spirit and may even help you have a little pep in your step when you start to decorate your home.
The overall lesson to learn from all these studies is that Christmas music is not bad. However, if you start to get tired of a song, it is best to find something else to listen to otherwise, you may start to feel the effects of this mentally — which can turn you off from all the music in general.