Музика, що не є класикою чи релаксом: як музика допомагає краще переносити біль

Though listening to heavy music doesn’t dull pain, it helps a person endure it significantly longer.

Heavy music does not weaken pain, but it helps to tolerate it for a longer period. Scientists found this out during an experiment at the heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air.

This is reported by the publication PopSci.

Researchers Lidiya Schneider and Tom Fritz decided to test the effect of heavy metal on pain perception. To do this, they went to the German festival Wacken Open Air, which attracts over 85,000 fans annually.

“We knew that suppressed anger has the greatest impact on intensifying pain in patients with chronic pain. That’s why we wanted to investigate whether pain perception changes, especially under the influence of a music genre like heavy metal, which expresses quite a lot of unpleasant emotions, including anger,” explained the scientist.

As part of the experiment, 122 volunteers measured their pulse and held their hands in ice-cold water for endurance. Their results were compared with data from a control group tested before the musicians took the stage. The results showed that festival attendees did not perceive the pain as less unpleasant, but reported that it became easier to bear.

“On the contrary, festival attendees were able to endure the pain caused by the cold longer than the control group,” explained Schneider.

The experiment recorded a correlation between listening to aggressive music and improved pain tolerance. The researchers emphasize that these findings could be useful in clinical and therapeutic settings, particularly for people with chronic pain.

“Music is often used to evoke positive feelings and relax, but when it comes to expressing anger, it’s not necessarily necessary to listen to relaxing music,” added Tom Fritz.

The authors of the publication note that the musicians themselves could confirm these findings. In particular, the headliners of Wacken Open Air 2022, the band Slipknot, whose 2004 hit “Duality” talks about the migraines of their lead vocalist.

It is worth noting that current models suggest the possibility of living almost 200 years if aging diseases are overcome, however, mass errors and falsifications in documents cast doubt on all existing longevity records.