PoshanSenseCan music make surgery less stressful? Comfort support, not a substitute for care
Chosen music with noise-cancelling headphones lowered anxiety in a small awake-hand-surgery trial. Wider pain and opioid claims remain uncertain.
Research explained · Published 2021, 2024
An operating room contains unfamiliar sounds, conversations and waiting. Even when a procedure is medically straightforward, the experience can feel intense. Music offers a familiar point of attention—but its role needs to stay in proportion.
Is it reasonable to ask about music?
Yes, as a preference to discuss with the team. Whether headphones or music fit depends on the procedure, the need for communication and local arrangements. The question is how to make an appropriate procedure more comfortable, not how to avoid necessary pain relief or monitoring.
A result from one awake procedure cannot automatically be carried over to general anaesthesia, every operation or every patient.
How much did anxiety change?
In the awake hand-surgery trial, average anxiety during surgery was about 1.0 out of ten with music and headphones, compared with 2.3 without them. Both groups started with similar anxiety ratings.
The result supports a possible improvement in the immediate experience. It does not mean every patient became calm, and the average difference should not be interpreted as a fixed percentage reduction in clinical anxiety.
Postoperative anxiety did not clearly differ, nor did satisfaction, heart rate or blood pressure. A lower questionnaire rating during surgery is worthwhile to investigate, but it is not evidence of fewer complications or a faster recovery.
Was music itself responsible?
The trial gave patient-selected music and active noise cancellation together. Either the music, reduced operating-room noise, distraction or their combination could have contributed. There was no separate music-only group.
Participants knew whether they had headphones, and anxiety was self-reported. Expectations can influence that outcome. The trial's 50 participants also leave uncertainty about less common experiences and different clinical settings.
Different questions, different answers
Anxiety during a procedure
A small awake-surgery trial found lower self-rated anxiety.
Music or headphones?
Both were given together; their effects were not separated.
Pain medication
A later pilot did not establish a clear opioid benefit.
Safe role
Optional comfort with the care team—not replacement care.
What about reducing opioid pain relief?
A 2024 US pilot studied perioperative music in adults with at least moderate preoperative anxiety undergoing outpatient surgery. Eighty were randomized, five were excluded after allocation, and further follow-up data were missing.
The music group had lower recorded opioid-use summaries, but the uncertainty interval for the estimated effect included no benefit. Pain estimates were also inconclusive. A numerical difference in a small pilot is not enough to say music reliably reduces the medication you need.
That later study tested different procedures and a broader music programme. It does not invalidate the earlier anxiety finding; it answers another question with considerable uncertainty.
Keep comfort connected to communication
If you would like music, ask in advance how it can fit the team's plan. A patient who needs to hear instructions or tell staff about discomfort must remain able to do so. Do not use loud audio to overpower communication or change prescribed medication based on a blog.
Some people prefer quiet, conversation or no headphones. There is no obligation to enjoy a playlist or a claim that being anxious means you chose badly. Comfort preferences can be individualized without being sold as treatment.
The hand-surgery authors declared no benefits related to the article. The later pilot received hospital and foundation support. Educational article; not clinically reviewed.
Sources & further reading
Study years differ from this article’s publication date. We reviewed full primary papers and relevant supporting material; access limitations are kept out of efficacy claims. Original illustrations and diagrams; no publisher figures reproduced. Educational writing, not clinical review.
Published 11 October 2026 · Sources checked 11 October 2026. Suggest a correction.