The objectives of the current study were to obtain four physiological measures sensitive to stress and compare the nature of their decline after a stress task while listening to different sounds. Particular focus was placed on examining the ability of the song “Weightless”, which has been heralded as “the most relaxing song in the world,” to reduce acute stress as measured physiologically. A single-subjects design was deployed with 57 university students acting as participants. Outcome measures were skin conductance, heart rate, respiration rate, and respiration depth that were obtained during a 4-min rest period containing the sound conditions (silence, monaural beats [6 and 16 Hz], aircraft noise,“Weightless”) and referenced to a proceeding stress task. “Weightless” and the 6-Hz monaural beat had significantly lower mean skin conductance than the reference condition (silence), but no differences were noted for rate of decline or final asymptote. Furthermore, after 4 min, “Weightless” was associated with a 36.09% decrease in skin conductance level, favorable to that reported by the song’s creators. In terms of heart rate decline, “Weightless” was no more effective than any other of the sound conditions, while for respiration rate, it was significantly less effective than silence and the 6-Hz monaural beat. Overall, there was evidence that the song “Weightless” was an effective tool to reduce acute stress.

当前研究的目的是获得四种对压力敏感的生理指标，并在听不同声音的同时比较压力任务后它们下降的性质。特别关注检查歌曲“Weightless”的能力，它被誉为“世界上最轻松的歌曲”，以减少生理上测量的急性压力。采用单学科设计，有 57 名大学生作为参与者。结果测量是在包含声音条件（沉默、单耳节拍 [6 和 16 Hz]、飞机噪音、“失重”）的 4 分钟休息期间获得的皮肤电导、心率、呼吸频率和呼吸深度，并参考到进行中的压力任务。“失重”和 6-Hz 单耳节拍的平均皮肤电导显着低于参考条件（沉默），但在下降率或最终渐近线方面没有发现差异。此外，在 4 分钟后，“Weightless”与皮肤电导水平下降 36.09% 相关，这与歌曲创作者报告的结果相符。在心率下降方面，“失重”并不比任何其他声音条件更有效，而在呼吸频率方面，它的效果明显低于静音和 6-Hz 单耳节拍。总体而言，有证据表明歌曲“Weightless”是减轻急性压力的有效工具。