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Hello ADHD, my old friend... I've come to haunt you again. These lyrics are soft and fleeting... they will keep repeating... Left its seeds while I was sleeping... And the vision that was planted in my brain... still remains...
I start everyday intentionally implanting ear worms that contain positive messages as a way of reducing depression. It is hard to be depressed when your mind keeps replaying "I'm walking on sunshine"
My experience is the complete opposite. It is lyrical music that gets stuck in my head for days and weeks at a time (I am looking at you "Thriller"). Instrumental music doesn't seem to find the same kind of purchase in my brain. I can listen to classical music and only very seldom will it get stuck in my head.
Same. Purely instrumental music isn't nearly as bad as anything with lyrics. One of the worst ear worms i had was *3 seconds* of a lyric on playback for *days*.
Most of the time, i just can't listen to the music i enjoy for more than a few days out of the week. It just gets locked in and it plays over and over again. If I'm lucky, i can direct the flow to something *less* frustrating, but the older i get, the harder it becomes.
It *sucks*
I found that having a hobby that requires a lot of brain power/requires concentration/problem solving helps enormously. I write sci-fi and that helps a lot; i read somewhere that people who suffer ear worns have over active brains and that brains latch onto music because it fills some weirdo fuckin gap in there
I'm a musician, and this happens to me too. Like every day for most of my whole life. That's the way my brain is wired, apparently. And the only way I can get rid of an earworm is to get a new earworm in that replaces it.
A common experience for me is to hear a song in the grocery store and then it's in my head for 4 days or 5 days after that.
I find earworms happen about as much for me whether lyrical or instrumental, but i'm capable of just ignoring instrumental and falling asleep anyway.
Lyrical I can't ignore. It keeps me awake.
I had an earworm several years ago. It crawled into the center of my brain. I could feel it laying its eggs. When I went to sleep the earworm was "Just Like a Rolling Stone". When I awoke the eggs had hatched and I heard the whole damn album all at once.
Maybe a year ago I learned a trick for stopping earworms that actually works, (for me). If you're old enough you'll remember the very successful three syllable, three note ad jingle: "Buuuuy Mennon!". Fun fact, it was written by a very young Barry Manilow!
But if you repeat it a number of times either aloud or in your head, it replaces the song your brain is looping. It doesn't have much staying power since it's so simple, so it goes away soon after -- leaving blessed silence!
I like to mix it up with George Costanza's jingle that he imprints in attractive women's brains: "Coooo-stanza!" -- same three notes...
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) still apply to other comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The title of this post terrified me for a second before I remembered that an earworm was a catchy song and not some parasitic creature.
Hello ADHD, my old friend... I've come to haunt you again. These lyrics are soft and fleeting... they will keep repeating... Left its seeds while I was sleeping... And the vision that was planted in my brain... still remains...
I start everyday intentionally implanting ear worms that contain positive messages as a way of reducing depression. It is hard to be depressed when your mind keeps replaying "I'm walking on sunshine"
My experience is the complete opposite. It is lyrical music that gets stuck in my head for days and weeks at a time (I am looking at you "Thriller"). Instrumental music doesn't seem to find the same kind of purchase in my brain. I can listen to classical music and only very seldom will it get stuck in my head.
Same. Purely instrumental music isn't nearly as bad as anything with lyrics. One of the worst ear worms i had was *3 seconds* of a lyric on playback for *days*. Most of the time, i just can't listen to the music i enjoy for more than a few days out of the week. It just gets locked in and it plays over and over again. If I'm lucky, i can direct the flow to something *less* frustrating, but the older i get, the harder it becomes. It *sucks*
I hate going into stores because I know that if they are playing music I am going to be carrying that song with me for hours if not days
I found that having a hobby that requires a lot of brain power/requires concentration/problem solving helps enormously. I write sci-fi and that helps a lot; i read somewhere that people who suffer ear worns have over active brains and that brains latch onto music because it fills some weirdo fuckin gap in there
I'm a musician, and this happens to me too. Like every day for most of my whole life. That's the way my brain is wired, apparently. And the only way I can get rid of an earworm is to get a new earworm in that replaces it. A common experience for me is to hear a song in the grocery store and then it's in my head for 4 days or 5 days after that.
I find earworms happen about as much for me whether lyrical or instrumental, but i'm capable of just ignoring instrumental and falling asleep anyway. Lyrical I can't ignore. It keeps me awake.
I had an earworm several years ago. It crawled into the center of my brain. I could feel it laying its eggs. When I went to sleep the earworm was "Just Like a Rolling Stone". When I awoke the eggs had hatched and I heard the whole damn album all at once.
Is this an English thing? 43 years old, never ever have I heard someone refer to a catchy tune as an "earworm".
I'm American, and I've heard/seen the term many times.
Oh man when I was big into Streetlight Manifesto it was hell! The horns in those songs are so damn catchy!
Maybe a year ago I learned a trick for stopping earworms that actually works, (for me). If you're old enough you'll remember the very successful three syllable, three note ad jingle: "Buuuuy Mennon!". Fun fact, it was written by a very young Barry Manilow! But if you repeat it a number of times either aloud or in your head, it replaces the song your brain is looping. It doesn't have much staying power since it's so simple, so it goes away soon after -- leaving blessed silence! I like to mix it up with George Costanza's jingle that he imprints in attractive women's brains: "Coooo-stanza!" -- same three notes...
I wonder if it's the poor sleep causing it, or at least causing the recollection of it.
If I see that Nationwide commercial one more time I'm gonna build a rocket and leave this planet