Does lofi help you focus?

Millions of people put on lofi to study, but does it actually help? The honest answer: it depends on the task, the music and you. Here's what published research on background music suggests, with links so you can read it yourself.

The short answer

• Lyrics tend to hurt reading. Instrumental music often doesn't, at least compared with quiet.
• On average, background music has no overall effect on performance, but that average hides real effects for specific tasks, both good and bad.
• Music can lift your mood and energy, which may be part of why people feel it helps.
• The best test is your own. Try a few sessions with and without music and compare what you got done.

None of the studies below tested lofi specifically. They looked at background music more broadly, so they tell us about ingredients, like lyrics and mood, rather than about one genre.

Lyrics compete with reading

In a study by Perham & Currie (2014), Applied Cognitive Psychology, 30 participants answered reading-comprehension questions under four conditions: quiet, instrumental music, music with lyrics they liked, and music with lyrics they disliked. Scores were best in quiet and with instrumental music, with no significant difference between those two. Both lyrical conditions hurt comprehension, and liking the music didn't help.

The likely reason is that words in what you hear compete with the words you're trying to process. That's the main argument for instrumental music, like lofi, when you study.

On average, background music is a wash

A meta-analysis by Kämpfe, Sedlmeier & Renkewitz (2011), Psychology of Music combined results from many studies of background music in adults. The overall effect was close to zero. But the authors found the average likely hid opposite effects: background music, compared with none, tended to disturb reading and had small negative effects on memory, while it had positive effects on emotional reactions and on sports performance. They also found that the tempo of the music influenced the pace of activities done while listening.

The takeaway: music isn't a universal study booster. It helps with some things, gets in the way of others, and the details matter.

Mood and energy matter

You may have heard that listening to Mozart makes you smarter. In a well-known follow-up, Thompson, Schellenberg & Husain (2001), Psychological Science found that people did better on a spatial task after an upbeat Mozart piece than after silence, but not after a slow, sad piece. When the researchers accounted for differences in enjoyment, arousal and mood, the "Mozart effect" disappeared.

In other words, music you enjoy may help indirectly, by putting you in a better, more alert state. That's one plausible reason lofi can make it easier to sit down and start, even if it doesn't directly improve concentration.

Breaks help you stay sharp

Focus fades during long, unbroken stretches. In Ariga & Lleras (2011), Cognition, people did a demanding 40-minute attention task. Most groups got worse over time, but those who briefly switched to a different task a couple of times during it didn't decline. That's a good argument for building breaks into your sessions, for example with the Pomodoro Technique and the timer on our home page.

How to get the most from lofi

1. Choose instrumental music for reading and writing. All Purrple Cat albums are instrumental.
2. Keep it quiet, just loud enough to cover background noise.
3. Pick music you enjoy, but that doesn't grab you. Familiar, steady albums are easier to ignore than exciting new ones.
4. Match it to the task. See the playlists by task and our guide to the best lofi for studying.
5. Take breaks. Use a focus timer so you step away regularly.

Test it on yourself

Because results vary from person to person, run a simple experiment. Over a week, alternate study blocks with music and without, on similar tasks. At the end of each block, jot down how much you got done and how focused you felt. After a few rounds you'll have your own answer, which matters more than any average.

Sources

• Perham, N., & Currie, H. (2014). Does listening to preferred music improve reading comprehension performance? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28(2), 279–284. doi.org/10.1002/acp.2994
• Kämpfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2011). The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 424–448. doi.org/10.1177/0305735610376261
• Thompson, W. F., Schellenberg, E. G., & Husain, G. (2001). Arousal, mood, and the Mozart effect. Psychological Science, 12(3), 248–251. doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00345
• Ariga, A., & Lleras, A. (2011). Brief and rare mental "breaks" keep you focused: Deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements. Cognition, 118(3), 439–443. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007

This page is general information, not medical or educational advice.