Music in your head

[Garga]

Do you always (always) have music playing in your head?

I don’t. But my ds16 recently asked me, “But how do you focus with all the music in your head all the time!?” And I was like, “Huh?”

Apparently, he hears songs in his head All The Time. I’ve had a song stuck in my head every now and then, but I do not have music playing in my head non-stop.

Is this a common thing? To have music playing in your head all day long?

[MEmama]

I’ll pay attention today, but I'm pretty sure I do, yes.
Right now it’s Boom Clap by Charli XCX. 🙂 

[Katy]

Usually, especially if I listened to music in the past few days. 

[Eos]

Almost always.  It's usually songs with words, but musician dd is constantly hearing baroque and classical music.  I'm sorry Margaret in CO has left, I'd be curious if her musician daughter does as well.

[TexasProud]

Yep.  Very distracting sometimes.  I always wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning hearing a dong.

[Carrie12345]

I don’t. Instead, I have a never ending stream of thoughts going.  FTR, I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 30. When I was a kid, I often either sang or spoke a lot of my homework out loud because it would keep my brain from veering into off-topic thoughts.  I did it the most with math, because I didn’t need to use much brain power for math and that made it especially hard to stay on-task.
To this day, if I have to scratch out a math problem for myself, I’ll do it at warp speed and do da do duh doo out loud so I don’t get distracted by my running grocery list or concerns about income inequality.

If music is playing and I’m really into it, especially if I’m singing along, the running commentary stops.  My mom used to think I was crazy for falling asleep with headphones playing Guns N Roses, but it was the only way to stop thinking at night for a while.

Anyway, I can totally see how the reverse might be true for some people.

[Pawz4me]

No music. I'm one of those apparently rare people who has to be in the right mood--and for me it's a very rare mood, maybe once or twice a year--to enjoy music. Otherwise I find it nothing but irritating and distracting noise, not much different from sirens or nails on chalkboard.

I do tend to have lots of words and thoughts trundling around in my brain. But with age and lots of practice (mindfulness) I've gotten to the point that I can shut those off sometimes.

[Innisfree]

If you're interested in a lengthy but enjoyable account of music and the brain, check out Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. 

https://www.amazon.com

[fairfarmhand]

I have music in my head constantly. Whole songs, or bits of them that I can remember, commercial jingles...currently, it's the theme song for the Holy Post Podcast.

[elegantlion]

I generally do, it usually an echo of what I recently heard. For instance, I recently downloaded a new game on my phone, it has some subtle but annoying tune in the background. I could still hear it hours after the game was over. I turned down the volume on that one. 

Another interesting way to hear music is to listen to the sounds of an AC or furnace or wind in the trees. Air moving through them creates the most interesting melodies.

[Soror]

I do a lot of the time. It will be the weirdest song too things I swear I haven't heard in forever and it will just pop in my head and stay there until the next song pops into my head. Ironically right now I don't have any songs in my head but I'm tired and my brain isn't working right now.

[GailV]

I don't, but I've gone through phases where I have.

I'm always fascinated to hear what's going on in other people's heads.  Once upon a time dd commented that she doesn't have a constant stream of words/conversation going through her head and I was gobsmacked -- I assumed everyone did!  Since then I've also discovered that not everyone sees colors when they close their eyes -- some people just get grey-scale. 

In the past year I've been diving deeper into meditation, including Shinzen's mindfulness techniques, so I'm much more attuned to my own "Hear In" as well other things my brain is getting up to.

[Guest]

I call myself “music sensitive” because every song/all music is a type of ear worm for me. It is why I don’t listen to music for pleasure and I absolutely *cannot* have music in the background while I am doing focused work. It doesn’t matter what the song is. It can be the Farmers Insurance company jingle, the Jeopardy! final challenge tune, little bits of guitar licks dh just played - anything - but music gets stuck in my head all the time. If I am having a bout of insomnia, I will wake up over and over again all night long and the ear worm song de jour is plaguing my head. 
 

I think it is OCD-related. I have gotten better at managing it as an adult. 

[Jaybee]

Not all the time. When I was regularly practicing the piano and/or violin I did. Or when the kids were practicing their instruments. But now it is mostly thoughts/words. I used to listen to music a LOT. But now I am just glad for quiet and don't listen to it much even when I have the opportunity. It interferes with the thoughts/words, lol.

The mind is so interesting. One ds has dyslexia. One time I asked him if he thought with words or pictures in his head. He immediately answered "pictures," and looked at me puzzled, as though to say, "How else would you think??" I thought that was fascinating, because I rarely think in pictures. It's nearly all words in my brain.

[elegantlion]

1 minute ago, Quill said:

I call myself “music sensitive” because every song/all music is a type of ear worm for me. It is why I don’t listen to music for pleasure and I absolutely *cannot* have music in the background while I am doing focused work. It doesn’t matter what the song is. It can be the Farmers Insurance company jingle, the Jeopardy! final challenge tune, little bits of guitar licks dh just played - anything - but music gets stuck in my head all the time. If I am having a bout of insomnia, I will wake up over and over again all night long and the ear worm song de jour is plaguing my head. 
 

I think it is OCD-related. I have gotten better at managing it as an adult. 

I have to listen to music without lyrics when I work. I found a youtube of 2 hours of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and it's my favorite to work by. It drowns my subconscious thoughts and somehow helps me focus. 

[Jaybee]

Unless the work is something rather mindless and repetitive, I can't listen to music when I work, even if it is wordless. My boys listen to music a lot when they work, and I can't understand how they can focus. I don't say anything, but I can't understand it.

[Laura Corin]

Husband does but I don't. 

[TravelingChris]

No, I don't

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, elegantlion said:

I have to listen to music without lyrics when I work. I found a youtube of 2 hours of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and it's my favorite to work by. It drowns my subconscious thoughts and somehow helps me focus. 

Nice. That doesn’t really work for me because my brain will just go, “Dant-dada-dada-dant-din-dah-dah...” instead. 
 

What does seem to help is if it is a song or jingle I know so well, my brain doesn’t have anything more to say about it. The worst is when I hear a new song and I don’t know all the lyrics...it’s like a puzzle my head wants to solve. 

[Jenny in Florida]

Not always, but frequently. It's one of the reasons I play quiet classical music when I'm trying to focus on things that require brain power. With the exception of certain days when I crave acapella chants or ancient-sounding sacred music, I can't play anything with words (even if they are in a language I don't speak), but the classical music seems to occupy the music part of my brain so that the rest can focus elsewhere.

 

[purpleowl]

Yes, always. Some songs are louder and more demanding of my attention, but they're always there. It's annoying if I'm going for a walk and the song in my head is in 3/4 because I can't start every measure on the same foot (I have no idea if this sort of thing bothers other people lol), so I try to switch it to something in 4/4 - sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. Also, sometimes my brain will meld two songs together so I hear the first part of one then the second part of the other, and then it starts back with the first one again.

[Eos]

14 minutes ago, purpleowl said:

the song in my head is in 3/4 because I can't start every measure on the same foot (I have no idea if this sort of thing bothers other people lol), so I try to switch it to something in 4/4

This is musician dd.  To the point where she's almost non-functional when it's something like the windshield wipers are in the wrong tempo for whatever is swirling around in her head.  She has synesthesia, so that might be part of it.  For me, I just sing along with whatever tune I wake up with.

[Indigo Blue]

On happy or good days, music is often stuck in my head. I actually like that. It keeps ruminations tamped down. Some days, when ruminations are dominant, I play music to get rid of them. Thank goodness for pets, music stuck in your head, and hiking.

[Indigo Blue]

Today, I will most likely have Relax Daily Calm Piano playing all day. 🎹 

[Carol in Cal.]

Always.

[Zebra]

ALL THE TIME!   I read somewhere, that earworms get stuck in your head because you only hear part of a song.   And so to "cure" it you need to hear the entire song.

Which does work for me, but then I just get stuck on another song.   And ANYTHING seems to trigger it!   I feel like my brain is just constantly trying to connect things to songs. 

[Zebra]

1 hour ago, Indigo Blue said:

On happy or good days, music is often stuck in my head. I actually like that. It keeps ruminations tamped down. Some days, when ruminations are dominant, I play music to get rid of them. Thank goodness for pets, music stuck in your head, and hiking.

I really wonder if it is just my brain trying to stop me from ruminating.   

[SKL]

I always have some noise/talking/singing in my head.  It is often, but not always, a song.

[Ditto]

5 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Instead, I have a never ending stream of thoughts going

This is me.  So very many thoughts going, they are constant and relentless.  I have not officially been diagnosed with ADD, but there is no doubt in my mind I have it.   I also have full conversations going on in my head in addition to the thought streams.  Let's just say my head is very full and very busy. 

[PeterPan]

4 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

Not always, but frequently. It's one of the reasons I play quiet classical music when I'm trying to focus on things that require brain power. With the exception of certain days when I crave acapella chants or ancient-sounding sacred music, I can't play anything with words (even if they are in a language I don't speak), but the classical music seems to occupy the music part of my brain so that the rest can focus elsewhere.

 

When I was in college I would listen to music in English while memorizing Russian. And yes music almost all the time.

[prairiewindmomma]

I have background music going 50% of the time. I just am glad I am not seeing equations in the air like Ds. He totally has the Numb3rs thing going on, complete with dramatic hand movements. 

[Zebra]

49 minutes ago, Ditto said:

 I also have full conversations going on in my head in addition to the thought streams.  Let's just say my head is very full and very busy. 

I think the benefit of being like this, for me anyway, is that I never fail to amuse and entertain myself....🤣

I like  to call it a "rich inner life".  😉

 

[fairfarmhand]

1 hour ago, Ditto said:

This is me.  So very many thoughts going, they are constant and relentless.  I have not officially been diagnosed with ADD, but there is no doubt in my mind I have it.   I also have full conversations going on in my head in addition to the thought streams.  Let's just say my head is very full and very busy. 

I can mentally “write” skits and things in my head while driving. It’s quite entertaining.

[Jaybee]

Yes to the thoughts, words, and rich inner life! I have said more than once that if dh had any idea of all that goes on in my head, he would be floored. (I just look like I'm sitting here doing nothing! lol) Music in addition would just be too much! 

[lulalu]

Yes. Ds does too. And he sings everything all the time! His singing answers for school drives me a little crazy when I really just want to get it done. 

Dh doesn't and does not understand us at all. But he wasn't exposed to much music as a child, and doesn't play any instrument either. 

[Resilient]

I do. 

[Pawz4me]

11 minutes ago, Jaybee said:

Yes to the thoughts, words, and rich inner life! I have said more than once that if dh had any idea of all that goes on in my head, he would be floored. (I just look like I'm sitting here doing nothing! lol) Music in addition would just be too much! 

Sometimes I just have to say to DH "[this thought/idea/whatever] just went through my head." Because I've always wanted him to understand how busy and endlessly interesting my inner life is. 😉  But I'm careful with what I share. I don't want to scare him. 😉 

[Jaybee]

6 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

Sometimes I just have to say to DH "[this thought/idea/whatever] just went through my head." Because I've always wanted him to understand how busy and endlessly interesting my inner life is. 😉  But I'm careful with what I share. I don't want to scare him. 😉 

Oh yeah, I tell him some of it. Enough to have regular full communication. But I'm not sure he could handle the quantity...and the bizarreness (is that a word?) of much more of it.

[KungFuPanda]

Music, running dialogue . . . there is always a soundtrack in my head.  When the music there is usually a reason it's there and in my life I need to DO something with it.  So, if I'm choosing music for a choreography, it's like a channel that jumps from song to song until I make a decision.  Once I know what I'm using, the song goes on repeat in my head while I hyper focus on its details. That song is gonna run in the background for weeks while I choreograph, teach, then perform the dance.  I imagine if I was a musician I'd probably need to play the music to get it out of my system.  @Garga, does your son have an art?  Can he sing the song, dance it out, play the piano, or even paint something?  It's almost like a pressure valve.  If you ignore it it gets louder, but if you DO something with it it calms down a bit.

[Arcadia]

9 hours ago, Garga said:

. But my ds16 recently asked me, “But how do you focus with all the music in your head all the time!?” And I was like, “Huh?”

Compartmentalize. 

7 hours ago, elegantlion said:

I have to listen to music without lyrics when I work. I found a youtube of 2 hours of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and it's my favorite to work by. 

That is lullaby music for me. The other being Pachelbel Canon in D.

7 hours ago, Jaybee said:

. My boys listen to music a lot when they work, and I can't understand how they can focus.

I do better in academic quizzes when I have background music playing while doing them. Those quizzes are open books and the teachers don’t care if we eat, exercise, whatever, while doing them as long as we don’t ask anyone for answers.

The background music helps keep me awake else I would be drinking too much coffee.

[*****]

What does it mean when an older, say 85 year old suddenly starts hearing music?  My mom was like that and it drove her nuts. She kept asking where the music was coming from and could it be turned off. Christmas music I think it was. 

I don't hear music, but have constant thoughts /ideas in my head. 

[Tanaqui]

Just to backtrack to the first post here, if your son is finding constant ongoing music in his thoughts to be a distraction then that's something very different from simply having the music, and if he hasn't been evaluated for a condition such as ADHD already it may be time to put those wheels in motion.

[I talk to the trees]

9 hours ago, purpleowl said:

Yes, always. Some songs are louder and more demanding of my attention, but they're always there. It's annoying if I'm going for a walk and the song in my head is in 3/4 because I can't start every measure on the same foot (I have no idea if this sort of thing bothers other people lol), so I try to switch it to something in 4/4 - sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. Also, sometimes my brain will meld two songs together so I hear the first part of one then the second part of the other, and then it starts back with the first one again.

Yup. This is me exactly. And if I am walking, the downbeat *must* be on the left foot, which comes from years of marching band drilling, I think. Also, if someone says something that follows the rhythmic pattern of a certain piece of music, my brain will switch to that piece.

[Ditto]

5 hours ago, Zebra said:

I think the benefit of being like this, for me anyway, is that I never fail to amuse and entertain myself....🤣

I like  to call it a "rich inner life".  😉

 

 

4 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

I can mentally “write” skits and things in my head while driving. It’s quite entertaining.

Yes, me too, to both of you!    Over the years of homeschooling my youngest daughter has gotten a peek into my very busy inner life and is constantly amused by what goes on inside my head.   Likewise I never fail to amuse my own self.    

[fairfarmhand]

1 minute ago, Ditto said:

 

Yes, me too, to both of you!    Over the years of homeschooling my youngest daughter has gotten a peek into my very busy inner life and is constantly amused by what goes on inside my head.   Likewise I never fail to amuse my own self.    

I may have been known to laugh out loud at what's going on in there.

[Ditto]

4 hours ago, Jaybee said:

I have said more than once that if dh had any idea of all that goes on in my head, he would be floored.

I have made the mistake of sharing a glimpse of what is inside my head with my husband.  He was a bit horrified and looked at me like I was several fries short of a happy meal.  Won't make that mistake again!   He just isn't "hip" enough to be invited to the party that goes on up there, obviously.

[Ditto]

1 minute ago, fairfarmhand said:

I may have been known to laugh out loud at what's going on in there.

Me too!  We are never alone or lonely are we?

[fairfarmhand]

1 minute ago, Ditto said:

Me too!  We are never alone or lonely are we?

Nope. My dd told me "My friend doesn't write stories in her head all the time!" 

I answered. "Wow. How does she ever go to sleep?" 

I tell myself bedtime stories until I nod off. 

[Ditto]

1 minute ago, fairfarmhand said:

Nope. My dd told me "My friend doesn't write stories in her head all the time!" 

I answered. "Wow. How does she ever go to sleep?" 

I tell myself bedtime stories until I nod off. 

I do this too!   I feel very fortunate that I have such a rich, lively, crowded, hilarious, creative inner life.   I'm sure you feel the same way about yours.  I think you might be the first person I have come across that seems to have the same inner life as mine.    Hopefully your daughter is as impressed with you and my daughter is with me.  Mine is positive that her mom is the only one in the world like this.

[Jaybee]

So...I used to do stories in my head, but for some reason it all stopped.😔 I do sometimes write articles in my head before I go to sleep. In fact, there is one I got started and was going to write down, but now I have forgotten it. Maybe tonight I can revive it...