Can Music Turn Down Pain?

Music and Pain Pathways

Several studies support the idea of using music to reduce pain. One idea is that it distracts from the pain, but it may be more complicated than that. The brain can turn pain signals up or down. Scientists used a scanning technique called fMRI to study activity in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord. Participants received a controlled heat stimulus that caused pain while they either listened to their favorite music or listened to no music.

Patients not only rated their pain lower when listening to music, the music changed the activity of the brain. The parts of the brain that are active during pain were not as active while listening to music. Also, the parts of the brain related to pleasure, listening, and thinking lit up instead (the limbic, frontal, and auditory areas) [1].

Most importantly, the scientists found that music triggers a built-in “pain-blocking system” that travels from the brain all the way down to the spinal cord. This system acts like a shield to turn down the pain signals before they even reach the mind.

Music Helps Relieve Pain in Clinical Studies:

Labor: A 2003 study found reduced pain sensation and distress over three hours, with the increase in emotional distress delayed for an hour [2].
The emotional response matters. A 2023 experiment found that favorite music reduced heat-pain intensity and unpleasantness more than unfamiliar relaxing music. Musical “chills” were associated with greater relief. That gives you a more interesting explanation than distraction alone [3].
Surgery: A 2015 review of 73 randomized trials found that music reduced postoperative pain, anxiety, and pain-medication use [4].

Palliative care: In 200 hospitalized patients, a single session combining therapist-guided relaxation and live music reduced pain more than usual care alone. Because the session combined both approaches, it supports music plus guided relaxation, rather than isolating music’s effect [5].