Stressed out? Here are songs that soothe a traveler’s soul

Anxious travelers can turn to a special music playlist to help alleviate their stress this travel season, thanks to Spotify. The music streaming service commissioned a special study to investigate the type of music that best helps calm nerves, and they found Adele’s “Someone Like You” to be the perfect song for nervous fliers.

The study was carried out by anxiety psychologist Becky Spelman of the Private Therapy Clinic in London. Spelman’s research found that slowing down breathing to be in time with music with a slow tempo — ideally around 60 beats per minute — helps lower a person’s heart rate and blood pressure and reduce anxiety.

Research also found that listening to music that stimulates both sides of the brain (while using headphones) helps reduce anxiety. Music that is both harmonious and emotional is best to achieving this type of stimulation.

Spelman then curated a 15-track Calming Music To Fly To playlist, which features songs from an array of genres spanning from classical to alternative rock. The playlist can help reduce the anxiety associated with fear of flying when listened to before and during a flight, and is available to all Spotify users.

The lineup:

“Someone Like You” by Adele
“Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” by Enya
“Piano on The Beach” by Liborio Conti
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (“Elvira Madigan”) K. 467 by Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
“Better Together” by Jack Johnson
“Pure Shores” by All Saints
“Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley
“Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chilli Peppers
“Paradise” by Coldplay
“As I Lay Me Down” by Sophie B. Hawkins
“Inside Out” by Britney Spears
“Ignition” by R Kelly
“Flaws and All” by Beyoncé
“The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole
“Space Oddity” by David Bowie

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