What the research says, and what it doesn’t

This page is about relaxation and mood in everyday life. It does not cover diagnosis or treatment of any condition.

Music for relaxation and stress

This is the best-studied part. Across many trials, listening to music is linked with lower stress on average. The effects are modest, they vary a lot between studies, and they come from music in general, not from any particular app.

1. A review of 104 randomised trials found that music interventions reduced stress, with small-to-moderate average effects on body and mind.

   “Results showed that music interventions had an overall significant effect on stress reduction in both physiological (d = .380) and psychological (d = .545) outcomes.”

   Open source: Effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes: a systematic review and two meta-analyses (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-08

2. One trial of 60 women found that relaxing music before a stressful task changed parts of the body’s stress response, mainly how fast it recovered; heart rate and how stressed people felt did not differ.

   “Our findings indicate that music listening impacted the psychobiological stress system.”

   Open source: The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-08

3. The US National Institutes of Health calls the research on music and health preliminary, and says music-based approaches may help.

   “The preliminary research that has been done so far suggests that music-based interventions may be helpful for anxiety, depressive symptoms, and pain associated with a variety of health conditions”

   Open source: Music and Health: What You Need To Know (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-08

Music therapy is a different thing

Music therapy is delivered by a trained therapist as part of care. The strongest review below is about that, for people with depression. Self Tone is not music therapy and does not treat depression or any other condition.

1. A Cochrane review of 9 studies found moderate-quality evidence that music therapy added to usual care helps depressive symptoms in the short term.

   “Findings of the present meta-analysis indicate that music therapy provides short-term beneficial effects for people with depression.”

   Open source: Music therapy for depression (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-19

Binaural beats

A binaural beat is a slightly different tone in each ear. Claims that these tones “sync” or “entrain” brainwaves are not established: the studies disagree, many are small, and the overall certainty is low.

1. A 2023 systematic review in PLOS ONE looked at 14 EEG studies: 5 supported brainwave entrainment, 8 contradicted it and 1 was mixed.

   “The results corroborate the impression of an overall inconsistency of empirical outcomes, with five studies reporting results in line with the brainwave entrainment hypothesis, eight studies reporting contradictory, and one mixed results.”

   Open source: Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-19

2. An earlier review notes that findings on how beat stimulation affects thinking and mood are often contradictory.

   “We aim to highlight important points concerning stimulation parameters and try to address why there are often contradictory findings with regard to the outcomes of ABS.”

   Open source: Auditory Beat Stimulation and its Effects on Cognition and Mood States (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-08

3. A 2026 review of music and binaural-beat studies in young adults found some benefits, but small samples and mixed designs limit how sure anyone can be.

   “However, heterogeneity in design and small sample sizes limit the certainty of findings.”

   Open source: Music and binaural beat interventions for young adults: A systematic review of effects on anxiety, sleep, and cognition (opens in a new tab) Checked 2026-10-08