EFFECTS OF BINAURAL BEAT MUSIC ON PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Authors: Zhen Nie & Wen Li*

ABSTRACT

Contemporary university students face multiple sources of stress, including academic demands, employment pressure, and interpersonal challenges, leading to a continuously increasing prevalence of psychological problems. As an emerging non-pharmacological intervention, binaural beat music has not been sufficiently investigated for its effects on psychological stress in general university students, warranting empirical examination. This study aimed to evaluate the intervention effects of theta-band (4 Hz) binaural beat music on psychological stress, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, subjective fatigue, and tension in university students, and to compare its effects with those of ordinary relaxation music. A two-group, pretest–posttest randomized controlled experimental design was adopted. A total of 96 university students were randomly assigned to either the binaural beat music group or the ordinary music group, receiving six 20-minute listening sessions over two weeks. Outcome measures, including the Perceived Stress Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale, Fatigue Self-Assessment Scale, and a tension subscale, were administered before and after the intervention. Results showed that the binaural beat music group demonstrated significant post-intervention reductions in all five indicators (psychological stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and tension), with large effect sizes (Cohen’s d ranging from 0.81 to 1.33). The ordinary music group also showed significant improvements, but with small-to-medium effect sizes. Between-group comparisons revealed that the change scores in the binaural beat music group were significantly larger than those in the ordinary music group (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01), indicating a unique augmentative effect of binaural beats. This study confirms that theta-band binaural beat music is a simple, safe, low-cost, and rapid intervention for alleviating psychological stress in university students, providing an easily disenable self-regulation tool for university mental health services with significant practical value.

Keywords: binaural beats, university students, psychological stress

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