Your favorite, bittersweet tunes may help relieve pain better than unfamiliar, relaxing music

Research has long suggested that music can help lower pain perception without medication and could even help babies tolerate heel-prick blood tests. Emerging research has also found that music might change our experience of certain types of discomfort. Importantly, the type of music you’re listening to may play a role. According to a small Canadian study published October 25 in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, listening to our favorite music can reduce pain intensity and bittersweet music specifically can help reduce the general unpleasantness of pain.