A new freshman on their first day of school has to face 720 days of their teen life in school — that is 17,280 hours of straight education. Of course, some students will be stressed.

In an article from Unihealth, a survey found that 87 percent of students experience stress, 77 percent of students experience anxiety, and 48 percent of students experience panic in school. Eight out of ten students claim to suffer from stress and anxiety.

That’s where music comes in. Music of all genres is a getaway for the mind and can provide an escape without having to leave the four corners of a room.

According to an article in a magazine published by the University of Central Florida, music has many effects on people: It changes one’s ability to perceive time, it can tap into primal fear, it can make people better communicators, and it can assist in repairing brain damage.

If music has such strong effects, could it improve mental abilities?

Some of the effects music can have on the mind include decreasing emotional distress or amplifying a variety of moods. Music that has, as described by Dean Burnett of The Guardian, a medium level of syncopation can help improve study habits because it gives the right amount of pleasure to the brain without being too distracting.

If music improves mental abilities, can it improve a student’s performance in school? Focus and attention in class is a major problem for some teachers. Many students feel they need to listen to music while they study or revise their work, believing it helps them concentrate better.

This is because of the two aspects of the brain. Burnett describes that the conscious part of the mind is controllable and can focus on what a person wants to focus on. The unconscious part is what cannot be controlled; this is the part that wanders and causes a person to focus somewhere else. With music, this consciousness has something to focus on, resulting in better focus overall.