A typical student’s day looks similar to this: wake up, go to school, go to four classes with only a lunch break and possibly a study period, go home and do homework, go to sleep, and repeat. On top of this, the student could be dealing with friend issues, family problems, health issues, and much more. An effect of a student crazy schedule is stress, which can lead to poor grades. A way to avoid these negative effects of stress is listening to music; however, this is not allowed in some schools. Listening to music should be allowed in schools because it can help with achieving better grades and can reduce stress in students.

Every student wants better grades in school, and music can help a person achieve this goal on quizzes or tests. One way music can help a student get better grades is with concentration and focus. The brain has two attention systems: a conscious one and an unconscious one. The conscious part directs people’s focus on things that he or she wants or needs to focus on. On the other hand, the unconscious part shifts a person’s attention to anything that the senses pick up that may be significant to the person and works faster than the conscious one. When a person’s conscious attention is focused on a task, like homework or studying, their unconscious attention is scanning around for distractions, like someone sniffling or a pen dropping. When a student is doing homework, he or she is already forcing herself or himself to focus on the homework, which means it is not hard for the unconscious attention to take over. When music is playing, a person’s unconscious attention is focused on the music while their conscious attention is focused on studying. The music essentially neutralizes the unconscious attention, so a person’s full focus is now on studying and homework. Furthermore, music can help a student’s memorization, which leads to better grades. A study from Stanford University says that music can help a student remember material on a quiz or test. The study says that music engages and enhances areas of the brain that are linked with memory. In addition, stress imbalances the brain making it harder to learn new things. Scientists have found that music puts the brain in a state of relaxation and meditation. This removes the stress from the brain, which makes it easier to learn. Music is a quick and efficient method that enhances memory, and ultimately leads to increased learning and better results from studying: three things students usually struggle to develop.

A student is under so much stress every day at school with tests, quizzes, homework, and many other factors, which can make stress levels rise. Listening to music in school can relieve stress by decreasing cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone that is produced when stress is present, so if cortisol is decreased stress is as well. The reason why music decreases cortisol levels is that music is linked to relaxation. Listening to music affects the cortisol levels in the autonomic nervous system, so the psychological stress response is reduced when listening to it. Another way music can reduce stress is by slowing the heart rate and reducing blood pressure. Increasing heart rate and high blood pressure can be an indicator of stress, so if a person gets rid of these things then stress is relieved. When the brain hears music, it quickly responds to the rhythm. The brain becomes subconscious, which affects the medulla oblongata in the brain. The medulla oblongata also controls heart rate, which is why a person’s heart rate slows when listening to music. The National Health Service did a test to see if music lowered blood pressure, in which twenty-eight people listened to thirty minutes of music. After the test was over, the twenty-eight people’s average systolic reading, which is the highest pressure when your heart beats, was lowered by 3.2 beats. Music relieves stress, which is something that a student needs at school considering all of the pressure he or she is put under daily.

Some adults think that music distracts students from doing tasks like homework. Others think that listening to “bad music” can be detrimental to a student’s mindset. Although this is not the case, music boosts people’s work ethic. People tend to concentrate and focus more when there is music present. Whatever genre of music a person likes, that genre will increase that person’s happiness and benefit that person’s mindset. When a person is listening to music, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that essentially makes a person happy. Whatever genre the music is, it is scientifically proven to make a person happy, and a person’s mindset will not become negative and unfavorable because of “bad music.”

Better grades and relieved stress can be accomplished in schools by allowing students to listen to music. Listening to music can help a student focus and remember the material. Music can also decrease cortisol levels, blood pressure, and lower heart rate. Since music has these positives effects on students, it should be allowed in schools. During study period or lunch, students should be allowed to listen to whatever genre of music they want. If scores and grades start to rise, then the school could start letting students listen to music while they are doing silent work or studying in class. Better grades and less stress means the school is happy and so are the students.