REVEALED: The song that’ll calm your nerves in the dentist’s waiting room, according to science

The role of music in the waiting room is more than just background noise: it can even influence patients’ experience of their treatment.

From a study into musical preferences, the digital healthcare platform Tebra discovered that many people find classical music the most relaxing genre.

As for the song with the strongest association with feelings of calm and relaxation in medical situations, respondents said ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.

Meanwhile, metal, hip-hop/rap and gospel were the genres people least wanted to hear in the waiting room.

These genres can worsen an already stressful medical situation, the researchers said.

Most people said that classical music is the most relaxing genre to listen to in the doctor’s waiting room

Researchers analyzed 59,363 songs on Spotify that were added to playlists containing the terms doctor’s office or dental office waiting room.

In addition, 1,002 Americans were surveyed about their music preferences and health habits.

Respondents were asked which genres they find most relaxing at the doctor’s office, and most stressful, and what types of music they often hear in medical settings.

They were also asked to point to individual songs on the playlists and prefer the songs they would like to hear in a waiting room.

Don’t Stop Believin’ came out on top, followed by ‘I’m Like A Bird’ by Nelly Furtado and ‘Africa’ by TOTO.

Many people said that classical music is the most relaxing genre, but it is also the genre most associated with feeling pain in the waiting room

The most popular waiting room song in the medical practice was ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey

Half of the respondents (about 500) found classical music the most relaxing to listen to in a waiting room.

Classical music was the genre most associated with pain at the doctor, while country music was most associated with anxiety.

Jazz music was associated with the shortest wait times, while country music was associated with the longest.

In a separate analysis, Spotify has compiled a list of the twenty most relaxing songs in the world to soothe the soul.

An analysis of more than 76,000 songs selected by Spotify users for their most relaxing public playlists revealed songs from folk-pop artist Ed Sheeran – ‘Perfect’ and ‘Thinking out Loud’ – that are sure to calm you down.

Songs from R&B crooner John Legend, TikTok sensation Surf Mesa and the contemplative British rockers of Coldplay also ranked high on the Spotify listening list.

But you might not recognize the music streamer’s most soothing artist: award-winning Bollywood film composer, instrumentalist and singer Pritam (Pritam Chakraborty).

Of the top 150 charting songs on the relaxing list, Pritam had the largest body of work, with a total of 10 songs in the top 150. including ‘Tum Se Hi’ (6th), ‘Raabta’ (19th) and ‘Subhanallah’ (20th).

A review, published in the Lancet in 2015, involved researchers who examined the results of 72 studies involving almost 7,000 patients who were exposed to music before, during or after surgery and compared their response to control groups who did not listen to music.

The researchers from Brunel University and Queen Mary University of London found that patients who listened to music felt significantly less anxious after surgery and required much less pain medication.

Although the impact was greatest in those who listened to their favorite songs before surgery, it also worked after surgery and most surprisingly, some people still experienced less pain after surgery even when the music was only played during surgery played.

Which suggests that even though they were unconscious, something was getting through.