Does music help you focus? For reading and memorizing, research suggests it usually doesn't. Studies find that background music, noise and speech each cause a small dip in reading performance, and music with lyrics is among the most distracting. Instrumental music seems to do less harm, and the effect varies with the task and the person.
One large summary of the research looked at reading. In 2018, researchers pooled 65 studies on how background sound affects reading. They found that noise, speech and music all had a small but reliable negative effect on reading performance. Intelligible speech and music with lyrics caused the biggest distraction, and the effect was generally similar for adults and children.
A 2023 experiment with college students tested four tasks: verbal memory, visual memory, reading comprehension and arithmetic. Each was done in silence, with instrumental music, and with music with lyrics. Here is what the researchers found:
Music with lyrics hurt verbal memory, visual memory and reading comprehension.
Its effect on arithmetic was not clear enough to count.
Instrumental lo-fi hip-hop did not clearly help or hurt.
Students noticed that lyrics hurt, but some felt instrumental music helped, even though the scores did not show a benefit.
So the honest answer is that, in these studies, music did not boost performance on word-heavy work, and lyrics were the main thing to watch. That doesn't mean you have to work in silence. The effects in these studies were small, so the choice is yours. Just match the music to the task.
Lyrics are words, and many focus tasks involve words too. When you read, write or memorize, words in your ears compete with the words on the page. The 2018 review noted that its results for speech and lyrics fit theories of this kind of meaning-based distraction, though plain noise distracted people too.
Language matters as well. A 2024 study of 90 college students in China found that pop music with lyrics lowered reading comprehension compared with no music. The drop was bigger when the lyrics were in the same language as the text, and accuracy was lowest with lyrics in the students' native language.
What this means in practice:
For reading, writing, studying and memorizing, choose silence or instrumental music.
If you want songs, lyrics in a different language from your text seem to get in the way less, though no music still did better in that study.
Save sing-along playlists for tasks where you don't need to read or write, like tidying or simple chores.
Personal differences are real, but they are not well understood. In the 2024 study above, students who usually listen to music while reading were less affected by it than students who don't. Overall, music with lyrics still lowered scores compared with no music.
Personality is another popular explanation. One theory says extraverts should benefit from background music while introverts do worse with it. A 2017 review found there is as much evidence for that idea as against it. The same review proposed that focused listening before a task, rather than background music during it, might be a better way to get a boost. That idea still needs more testing.
Keep it low, for two reasons. First, the 2018 review found that even plain background noise had a small negative effect on reading, so sound is not free for your attention. Second, your hearing.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) says sounds at or below 70 A-weighted decibels (dBA) are unlikely to cause hearing loss, even after long exposure. Long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 dBA can cause hearing loss. For comparison, NIDCD lists normal conversation at 60 to 70 dBA, and music through headphones at maximum volume at 94 to 110 dBA.
A simple rule: keep focus music at or below the level of a normal conversation, and never study with headphones turned all the way up. Long study sessions mean long exposure.
Match music to the task. Word-heavy work gets silence or instrumental music. Routine, hands-on work can get what you enjoy.
Pick the playlist before you start. Choosing songs mid-task means picking up your phone, and that can lead somewhere else.
Use long, steady playlists. A playlist you don't have to manage is easier to ignore.
Try music as a warm-up. Play something you like for a few minutes, then start the task in silence.
Keep the volume low. Background, not foreground.
Run your own test. Your results matter more than anyone's opinion, including ours.
Example two-week test: alternate days, working in silence one day and with instrumental music the next. Use the same kind of task and a fixed block, such as 25 minutes, and note what you got done, like pages read or problems solved. After two weeks, compare. This is an example only, so change the task and timing to suit you.
For more study habits, see the Honest Little Apps guide on how to concentrate while studying.
For reading and memorizing, studies lean toward silence. Music with lyrics is the most distracting. Instrumental music seems to do less harm, so it is a reasonable middle ground if silence feels uncomfortable.
In a 2023 study of college students, instrumental lo-fi hip-hop did not clearly help or hurt memory, reading or arithmetic. It looks fairly neutral rather than a focus booster.
Words in songs compete with the words you are reading or writing. A review of 65 studies found that intelligible speech and music with lyrics were the most distracting sounds during reading.
Low. Keep it at or below the level of normal conversation. NIDCD says sounds at or below 70 dBA are unlikely to cause hearing loss, while long or repeated exposure at or above 85 dBA can.
If reaching for your phone to change songs tends to turn into scrolling, Time Debt: Screen Time offers one-tap focus sessions that keep the apps you select shielded. You can also pick distracting apps, categories and websites and give them separate weekday and weekend daily limits. There is no account and no ads, and your rules and history stay on the device.
Get Time Debt free on the App Store