At the end of a long or hard day, it’s not uncommon to want to just kick back and relax. Many people like to use music to help accomplish this. But which song is best suited for the purpose? Is there a song that can qualify as the “most relaxing”?

The World’s Most Relaxing Song

According to a group of researchers, the award for the most relaxing song goes to a band called Marconi Union for their song titled ‘Weightless’ (You can listen to the song below at the bottom of the article).

Marconi Union is a British band which consists of three members, Duncan Meadows, Jamie Crossley, and Richard Talbot. Their musical style often contains elements of jazz, electronica, dub and ambient.

In October of 2010, Marconi Union collaborated with the British Academy of Sound Therapy to create the eight minute track ‘Weightless’. The researchers at the Academy had but one goal in mind; to create the most relaxing song ever. And it appears they achieved it. In a recently released study carried out by Radox, it was officially labelled as the “most relaxing song ever”.

The Science Behind It

The scientists at the Mindlab institution showed that the song (Weightless) induced a 65% reduction in overall anxiety and also brought the test subjects resting pulse rates down 35% lower than their usual resting rates. The song features piano, guitar, and manipulated field recordings. The song is also marked throughout by low tones that can help to induce a trance-like or ‘zoning out’ state. The altered mental state induced by the song is thanks to the intervals of the beats, which are at a continuous rhythm of 60 BPM. The 60 BPM rhythm causes the brain and heart rate to synchronize. A process called as ‘entrainment’.

After Weightless was made available as a free download, it quickly became a hit with over 60,000 downloads in the first 36 hours. Back in November, Marconi Union was featured in Time magazines’ list of Inventors of the Year, for creating ‘Weightless’. The song is so relaxing that drivers are being warned not to listen to it while driving.