You know how you get those catchy songs stuck in your head? You hear them once and suddenly you’re humming or singing the song? It becomes the song that will not go away!
These songs are called earworms.
And they’re really annoying. The more you think about them, the more they stick in your mind.
I was waiting for my toes to dry after a pedicure and came across this short snippet in Women’s Health, Australian edition, about how to get rid of earworms.
The answer: Chew gum.
Why does it work?
The motion of your jaw interrupts the earworm by distracting the part of the brain that is responsible for repetitive thinking, according to Dr. Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, Director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas.
A second way to stomp on an earworm is to play another song and listen to it all the way through. Of course, you run the risk of catching another earworm!
Can you remember your last earworm?
That’s interesting. I might have to try that. I do remember my last one. Someone posted a video of Lamb Chop’s Play Along- Song That Doesn’t End. Since I used to watch that show with my daughter I remembered the song and in my head it went. lol
I’ve always heard that singing the Flintstones’ theme song works too. It does for me…well, most of the time. :O)
Mary – I remember the Lamb Chop song. I used to love Lamb Chop because he was so cute, but that song! Oy! Not one I’d want stuck in my head.
LuAnn – It would be just my luck that the Flintstone song would get wedged inside my head and refuse to shake loose.