There are days when a familiar song can feel like an antidote to stress. A peppy track may lift your mood, a slow melody may help you unwind after a difficult day, and a favourite song can sometimes bring back memories, comfort or a sense of connection. Music is deeply woven into how we experience emotions, relationships and everyday life.

Shakespeare captured this emotional connection centuries ago when he wrote, “If music be the food of love, play on,” the famous lines of Twelfth Night. But beyond the emotional and cultural role of music, researchers are increasingly asking a scientific question: can music actually influence our mental health and wellbeing?

The idea may sound familiar, but music is also being studied in clinical settings. You may also have seen videos circulating online showing patients playing musical instruments, including guitars, during surgical procedures. 

How does music affect the brain?

Music is not processed by just one part of the brain. Its rhythm, melody, emotional qualities and familiarity can engage several neural systems involved in perception, movement, memory, emotion and reward.

A 2023 review brought together evidence from neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry and proposed four broad components through which music may influence mental health: tonality, rhythm, reward and sociality. The review explains that different aspects of music may be relevant to mood, anxiety, cognition, motivation, positive emotion and social connectedness.

One of these pathways involves the brain’s reward system. Research reviewed in the paper suggests that pleasurable musical experiences can activate brain reward circuitry, including the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. This may help explain why people can experience strong pleasure, anticipation or even “chills” while listening to music.

Rhythm may work differently. The review discusses how the brain can synchronise with rhythmic patterns, potentially influencing movement, attention and motivation. Music can also have a social dimension. Singing, playing or moving to music with other people can promote synchrony and social connection, although researchers are still studying exactly how these effects translate into clinical benefits.

Importantly, this does not mean that listening to a favourite song is equivalent to receiving music therapy. Music therapy is a structured intervention delivered for therapeutic purposes, often by trained professionals, whereas everyday music listening can be informal and highly individual.

The distinction matters because the evidence is not equally strong for every use of music.

What do clinical studies show?

Research in hospitals has examined whether structured music interventions can help with anxiety and physiological stress.

A 2021 study conducted in a tertiary-care hospital in India included 70 ICU patients who were randomly divided into a music-therapy group and a conventional-care group. The intervention group received 20 minutes of tailored music therapy three times a day for three consecutive days, alongside standard treatment. Researchers assessed anxiety using the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and also monitored physiological parameters.

The researchers reported a significant reduction in anxiety in the music-therapy group, while the conventional-care group did not show the same change. They also reported improvements in physiological parameters after the intervention. The authors concluded that music therapy could be a non-invasive, non-pharmacological approach for reducing ICU-related anxiety and helping stabilise some physiological parameters.

However, this was a relatively small study, with only 35 participants in each group. Its findings therefore provide evidence of a possible benefit in that particular ICU setting, rather than proving that music therapy will have the same effect for every hospital patient.

Research has also explored music in people living with severe mental illness.

A 2025 pilot randomised controlled trial in Turkey included 56 outpatients with chronic schizophrenia. Participants in the intervention group listened to pre-recorded Turkish rast makam music for 60 minutes twice a week over eight weeks. The researchers found that depression scores and sleep-quality scores improved compared with the control group. Depression levels also decreased from before the intervention to after it and at follow-up.

The researchers described the intervention as feasible, economical, safe and non-invasive, while noting its potential to improve depression and sleep quality in this group. 

More recent evidence has also looked specifically at children and adolescents.

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2026 examined nine randomised controlled trials involving 690 young people aged 6 to 18 years. Across the included studies, music therapy was associated with reduced depressive symptoms, improved self-esteem and better health-related quality of life. The pooled effect for depressive symptoms was moderate, while evidence for anxiety came from only two trials and was therefore more limited.

The authors reported a standardised mean difference of −0.55 for depressive symptoms, 0.45 for self-esteem and 0.69 for quality of life. Two trials suggested a reduction in anxiety, with an effect estimate of −0.42. However, the researchers cautioned that the anxiety evidence was based on a small number of studies and that subgroup findings about age, session length, frequency and duration should be considered exploratory rather than proof of an optimal way to deliver music therapy.

This distinction is important. The findings suggest that music therapy may have mental-health benefits, but they do not establish music as a replacement for established treatments such as psychotherapy or medication when those treatments are clinically indicated.

Indian classical music and mental health

Indian classical music has also attracted scientific interest. A 2021 study involving 21 male medical students examined whether variations in tempo and octave in Carnatic music could affect anxiety. Participants listened to either “varying music” with incremental changes in tempo and octave or “stable music”, both recorded in Raaga-Kaapi, three times a day for six days.

The study found a significant reduction in anxiety scores only among those who listened to the varying music. The researchers noted that, “music-selection has remarkable influence on stress-management and warrants further research.”

Another 2024 randomised controlled study investigated the effects of listening to raga Bhairavi through a 360-degree virtual-reality experience. Forty-four participants were randomly assigned either to the VR-raga intervention or to a control group without exposure to the raga for six days. Researchers measured depression, anxiety and stress using the DASS-21, alongside heart-rate variability measures.

After six days, the researchers reported significant reductions in all three DASS-21 measures in the VR-raga group. They also observed changes in several heart-rate-variability parameters that they interpreted as reduced physiological stress and improved autonomic balance.

But the study tested a very specific intervention: raga Bhairavi delivered through a virtual-reality environment. Therefore, its findings should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that listening to any Indian classical music, in any setting, will produce the same effects.

What experts say

According to Mr Saikishore, Clinical Psychologist at Aster Whitefield Hospital, music can influence several systems involved in emotion, attention and physiological arousal. Familiar or personally enjoyable music may divert attention from stressful thoughts, evoke positive memories and emotions, and promote relaxation.

“Music has the potential to affect autonomic responses, such as heart rate and other measures of physiological arousal. Evidence also suggests that music therapy can reduce psychological stress, although the response varies greatly from person to person.”

Saikishore explained that the calming effect of music is not necessarily determined by its genre alone. Factors such as familiarity, personal preference and the emotional associations a person has with a particular song can influence how they respond.

Based on a 2025  meta-analysis, Saikishore said music therapy may be considered a supplementary approach alongside established treatments, rather than a replacement for psychotherapy or medication when these are clinically indicated.

When it comes to Indian classical music, Saikishore pointed to research examining ragas such as Puriya, Malkauns, Miyan Ki Todi and Bhairavi for their effects on anxiety and physiological responses.

“There is no scientifically proven fact that one single raga produces the same effects on everybody,” he said. 

He noted that some studies have reported reductions in anxiety, depression and stress after listening to Indian classical music, while also pointing out that the available evidence remains limited and varies in quality.

“For relaxation purposes, one should select music that they feel pleasant to hear and observe the actual effects it has on their physiology,” he said.

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