The Simple Thing to Do to Get a Song Out of Your Head

If you're sitting at your desk wondering how many more times "Sugar" by Maroon 5 can play in your head, stop suffering and start chewing. A published study found that chewing on a piece of gum can finally get songs out of your mind.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Reading and published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, included 98 participants. It found that those who chewed on gum were able to stop thinking about songs by 33 percent. Those who participated in the study listened to "catchy" songs like "Payphone" by Maroon 5 and "Play Hard" by David Guetta. People who were asked to do nothing or just tap a key after hearing the song play did not get the song out of their head as easily — and probably sang to themselves the rest of the day.

Essentially, chewing gum appears to work because it interrupts the thoughts in our head. Dr. Phil Beaman, the lead researcher on the study, hopes that additional research can apply this technique to other issues. "Interfering with our own 'inner speech' through a more sophisticated version of the gum-chewing approach may work more widely," he wrote. "However more research is needed to see whether this will help counter symptoms of obsessive-compulsive and similar disorders."

Songs stuck in our heads, more popularly known as "earworms," affect about 90 percent of the population on a weekly basis and date all the way back to the 19th century. While the sample size of this study was relatively small (meaning it might not work for everyone), here's hoping popping a piece of Juicy Fruit will finally get "Sugar" out of your head. If not, you can give in and just listen to it on repeat.