Listening to music before an eye surgery can make patient less nervous and reduce the amount of constraint, new study has found. Cochin University Hospital’s researches in France did study on 62 patients to hear relaxing music or no music through headphones for around 15 minutes just before cataract surgery, which also lasted an average 15 minutes.

Researchers said, the music played was specifically composed to ease anxiety following strict criteria, including instrumental pieces only using a decreasing tempo and a progressive decrease in the number of instruments playing.

They added, each patient was able to choose from a panel of 16 recorded music styles according to their own preferences and listened through high-quality headphones.

There were various styles available, including jazz, flamenco, Cuban, classical and piano. However, there is evidence that music-induced relaxation lasts around 60 minutes after the music has stopped, they said.

Postoperative satisfaction was significantly higher in the music group (mean score 71 out of 100 versus 55 for the non-music group), they said. "Music listening may be considered as an inexpensive, non-invasive, non-pharmacological method to reduce anxiety for patients undergoing elective eye surgery under local anaesthesia," said Gilles Guerrier from Cochin University Hospital.