Music with monaural beats for anxiety reduction and mood enhancement in individuals with moderate trait-anxiety

Abstract

Monaural beats embedded in music are a popular anxiety-relief intervention, yet implementation parameters and efficacy remain poorly understood. Across two studies of online participants with moderate trait anxiety, we tested whether theta-frequency (4–7 Hz) monaural beats in music produce anxiolytic and mood-enhancing effects beyond the same music alone, whether the salience of the beats relative to the music influences effects, and whether the effect of beats generalizes across heterogeneous musical stimuli. State anxiety, valence and arousal were measured before and after a 25-min listening period. In Study 1, participants ( N = 207) were randomly assigned to hear music without beats (Music-Only control) or the same piece with monaural beats blended at three different salience levels: Low-, Moderate-, or High-Beatmix. The Low- and Moderate-Beatmix conditions yielded greater anxiety reductions than Music-Only ( p adjusted = 0.047, β = −0.46, and p adjusted = 0.047, β = −0.46 respectively), whereas Music-Only reduced anxiety more than the High-Beatmix condition ( p adjusted = 0.047, β = 0.42), indicating that overly salient beats might disrupt anxiolytic effects. Time × Condition interactions were not significant for valence or arousal. In Study 2, participants ( N = 259) were randomized to one of four stylistically varied tracks, with or without beats at the Moderate-Beatmix level. Averaged across tracks, Beatmix conditions produced greater anxiety reductions ( p < 0.0001, β = −0.49) and positive-valence increases ( p = 0.029, β = 0.28) than Music-Only. As in Study 1, the Time × Condition interaction was nonsignificant for arousal. These studies provide some of the first evidence that adding monaural beats to music has anxiolytic effects beyond music alone, that efficacy depends on relative beat salience, and that findings replicate across a range of musical tracks.