Defining Stress
Stress is an overwhelming emotion that can arise from various reasons. It may be due to finals week, a deadline for a paper or report, or perhaps it’s from not tidying your home, which is very much a mess! Not only are these scenarios overwhelming, but the physical feeling of stress is an unpleasant emotion in itself - characterized by a raised heart rate and sweating, to name a couple.
Regardless of the reason behind being stressed, everyone has felt stressed at one time or another. Even though it is a common state of being, it is also common to try to alleviate those feelings of stress. Some people may go to a spa for a massage, others may go for a walk; there are many ways in which people spend time, energy, and money trying to relieve themselves from feeling stressed.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stress is defined as “...a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation” (World Health Organization, 2023). In other words, stress is technically defined as a reaction to a difficult situation in which a person feels worried. Lower levels of stress can be helpful to motivate people; however, high levels of stress can be a threat to a person’s mental and physical health (World Health Organization, 2023).
Stress is an interesting feeling because it can be characterized by various overlapping symptoms. For instance, the WHO has identified the following:
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Difficulty concentrating
- Headaches
- Difficulty sleeping
- Stomach-related illnesses
People who experience extreme stress are more likely to increase their intake of harmful substances such as tobacco and alcohol. It can also lead people to develop mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression (World Health Organization, 2023). A list of physical and emotional symptoms is described below.
Physical Symptoms
- Headaches
- Difficulty sleeping
- Stomach-related illnesses
- Substance abuse
Emotional Symptoms
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Irritability
- Difficulty concentrating
Indeed, there is much overlap between the physical and emotional symptoms of stress listed in the table above since emotional symptoms can lead to physical ones. For instance, some people who feel anxious and depressed may try to self-medicate by drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Given how common stress is and how its characteristics bleed into physical and emotional attributes, from headaches to anxiety, it is no surprise that it is a subject area that is heavily researched. On PubMed alone, when searching for the word ‘stress’, about 297,000 results popped up. That is a lot of research papers!
Feel free to check it out by yourself using the link (last checked on 09/15/2025).
Stress and Music
Let’s jump into the world of music. Music is an interesting topic because of its interdisciplinary connection, e.g., sociology, psychology, art, culture, politics, and medicine. Music is a phenomenon that bleeds into all aspects of life. Countries have unique national anthems, cultures have defining music genres, and it has also been used for its medicinal characteristics, e.g., stress. Music is something that connects with a person emotionally. It has deep emotional roots. If you have ever enjoyed listening to music, it can make you feel a whole range of feelings from nostalgia to excitement - depending on the rhythm, lyrics, and beat.
What is intriguing is the fact that music has a connection with mental health, specifically stress, which has not been heavily researched in the past five years to date; only about 700 research articles have been published. That is a massive contrast to the number of articles (about 300k) that were published on stress alone. Nevertheless, research on music and its relation to stress has shown that it is therapeutic.
A study that I want to highlight is one by Linnemann and colleagues (2015), which looked at the impact of music on 55 students. The study evaluated students’ physiological and subjective responses (participants filled out a survey) to stress when listening to music. In this study, researchers collected spit samples to measure the stress levels of participants. Although stress levels weren’t directly reduced by music, according to results from the spit samples, Linnemann et al. (2015) found that listening to music did indeed reduce students’ stress!
- During the study, students were asked to fill out a survey to indicate their stress levels. Results showed that listening to music helped relieve their stress.
- Music that was identified as being low in arousal (e.g., calming music) was found to reduce stress levels found in students’ spit samples.
- Similarly, spit samples showed that listening to music for the purpose of relaxing reduced stress.
Moreover, this study suggests that the intention behind listening to music can physiologically reduce stress!
Recommendations
Research suggests that music reduces the feeling of stress and can even physiologically impact stress if the intention of listening to music is to relax or to be calm. Therefore, the next time you are feeling stressed, don’t hesitate to turn on some calming music and let it do its magic of melting all your stresses away 😀
REFERENCES
Linnemann, A., Ditzen, B., Strahler, J., Doerr, J.M. and Nater, U.M. (2015). Music listening as a means of stress reduction in daily life. Psychoneuroendocrinology, [online] 60(60), pp.82–90. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.06.008.
World Health Organization (2023). Stress. [online] World Health Organization. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/stress.
