Listening to specially designed music for just 24 minutes can meaningfully reduce anxiety levels.
A new randomized clinical trial found that listening to specially designed music combined with auditory beat stimulation (ABS) for just 24 minutes can meaningfully lower anxiety levels. The findings point to a practical, non drug option that could help people manage anxiety in everyday settings.
The study was led by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) psychology researchers Danielle K. Mullen and Frank A. Russo in collaboration with LUCID, a digital therapeutics company that emerged from TMU’s Zone Learning ecosystem. Their work tested whether short, structured listening sessions could produce measurable emotional benefits under controlled conditions.
Anxiety, Treatment Barriers, and Digital Alternatives
Anxiety affects millions of people worldwide, yet standard treatments such as medication and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are not always easy to access. Side effects, long wait times, financial costs, and the need for ongoing appointments can limit their use.
Music-based digital therapeutics are gaining attention as an affordable and widely available alternative, offering a simple way to support emotional regulation and provide rapid relief from anxiety symptoms without medication.
In the trial, 144 adults diagnosed with moderate trait anxiety and already using medication to manage their symptoms were randomly placed into one of four different listening groups.
- Pink noise (24 minutes; control)
- Music with ABS (12 minutes)
- Music with ABS (24 minutes)
- Music with ABS (36 minutes)
Participants completed standardized measures of anxiety and mood before and after the intervention.
24 minutes emerges as the optimal “dose”
Results showed that music with ABS reliably reduced both cognitive and somatic symptoms of anxiety, as well as negative mood, compared to the pink noise control.
Importantly, the 24-minute listening session produced the strongest overall reduction in anxiety, performing on par with the 36-minute session and clearly outperforming the 12-minute version.
“What we’re seeing is a dose–response pattern where about 24 minutes of music with ABS seems to be the sweet spot,” said Russo, Professor of Psychology at TMU and Chief Science Officer, LUCID. “It’s long enough to meaningfully shift anxiety levels, but not so long that listeners need to carve out a large block of time.”
Reference: “Investigating the dose-response relationship between music and anxiety reduction: A randomized clinical trial” by Danielle K. Mullen, Tianle Peng, Lauren Stewart, Adiel Mallik and Frank A. Russo, 21 January 2026, PLOS Mental Health.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmen.0000355
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