Doctor reveals how to get rid of songs stuck in your head using chewing gum

27 April 2021, 12:25

By Alice Dear

@According2Al

Turns out there is a way you can get rid of that annoying tune stuck in your head, and it is as simple as just chewing gum.

A day rarely goes by when we're not bothered by a song getting firmly stuck in our heads, and it appears we are not alone as the phenomenon – known as earworms – affects 92 per cent of people.

Whether it is a tune we love or hate, sometimes there is no getting rid of them – or is there?

That's right, it turns out there is even a hack to help you forget that annoying song repeating in your head – which usually happens to be baby shark for us!

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According to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, chewing gum could be the simple way to reset your brain.

Dr Karl, who has degrees in medicine and biomedical engineering, explained that chewing gum can be the perfect way to distract your brain, and it's all down to the biology of the brain.

He explained: "For some unknown reason the same pathways in your brain that are used for programming your repeated jaw movement are also used for replaying music in your mind. It's just a coincidence."

Dr Karl went on to add that other ways you can try and flush the song out of your head include either playing the song over and over again, or not at all.

You can also try reading a book, listening to a different song or even playing an instrument.

All these activities use the same part of the brain that loops songs in your mind, so distracting it with something else can help ditch the song all together.

If you want to avoid getting songs stuck in your head in the first place, you might want to avoid the likes of We Will Rock You by Queen, Happy by Pharrell Williams and Living On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, which were previously found to be some of the biggest earworms of all time.

Also likely to get stuck in a loop in your head are Shake It Off by Taylor Swift, Beat It by Michael Jackson and Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars and Marc Ronson.

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