Daily Calm: Quiet beats in music eased anxiety

Daily Calm, from Central London Hypnotherapy

A new pair of experiments in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience asked a simple question: does it change how anxious you feel if the music you listen to has a gentle pulse built into the sound? The paper, Music with monaural beats for anxiety reduction and mood enhancement in individuals with moderate trait-anxiety, tested exactly that, and the answer depends on how quietly the pulse sits in the mix.

What the study found

The researchers added theta-frequency monaural beats to music. A monaural beat is a rhythmic pulse that is part of the sound itself, so you do not need special equipment to hear it. When the beats were blended in at a low or moderate level, listeners' anxiety fell further than with the same music without beats. That held in both of the two experiments.

When the beats were turned up and made highly prominent, the result flipped. Anxiety fell less than with plain music. Mood also became somewhat more positive across several different tracks in the second experiment. Neither experiment found a change in physical arousal, meaning how energised or settled people felt in their bodies.

The two trials were randomised and run online, with 466 people in total (207 in the first, 259 in the second). Everyone listened once, for about 25 minutes. The adults taking part had moderate trait anxiety, a general tendency to feel anxious that scored between 36 and 43 on a standard questionnaire. Because testing happened at home, volume and headphones were not controlled, and the results say nothing about people with diagnosed anxiety disorders. Our summary is based on the published abstract, as the full paper is not open access. Bioengineer.org's coverage makes the same point about loudness: the calming benefit disappeared once the beats stood out.

What this looks like in a busy week

Most of the people I work with already have a playlist for the Tube, a podcast for the walk home, or a track they put on to get through a deadline. This study suggests the detail of the sound matters. Something quiet and steady in the background seems to help. Something that demands attention does the opposite.

That fits a pattern I notice in practice. Calm tends to arrive when the pressure to feel calm drops away. A listening habit that takes no effort is easier to keep than a rule you have to enforce.

What it means for you

• Choose music with a soft, steady texture when you want to wind down, and keep the volume moderate.
• Treat one session as a short reset. The research measured a single 25-minute listen, so think of it as a tool for the evening, not a plan for the month.
• Notice what you are tense about when the music stops. That is the part worth working on.

Music can take the edge off in the moment. For anxiety that returns the next day, hypnotherapy works on the response itself. A 2019 review of 15 studies covering 17 controlled trials, published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, found that hypnosis reduced anxiety more than control conditions, with an average effect of 0.79 at the end of treatment and 0.99 at the longest follow-up across seven trials, and it did best when combined with other psychological approaches. A 2013 review of 34 randomised trials in adults having surgery or medical procedures, 2,597 people in all, found hypnosis eased distress with an effect of 0.53.

My name is Tim Dunton; I have worked as a hypnotherapist for over two decades and hold NLP training from Bandler and Grinder. You can read how I work on hypnotherapy for anxiety in London.

Book a free consultation. Book a 15 to 30 minute talk, in person or online, with no obligation: request your free consultation or call 07975 653893.

The research

1. Music with monaural beats for anxiety reduction and mood enhancement in individuals with moderate trait-anxiety, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2026.1980343

2. Bioengineer.org, 6 November 2026, coverage of the monaural beats study. https://bioengineer.org/music-with-monaural-beats-eases-anxiety-more-than-music-alone/

3. Valentine KE, Milling LS, Clark LJ, Moriarty CL, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 2019, 67(3):336-363. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31251710/

4. Tefikow S et al, Clinical Psychology Review 2013, 33(5):623-636. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23628907/

Tags: anxiety · music · research · calm · London

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