Song stuck in your head? 'Earworm Eraser' claims to get rid of it instantly - here's how to try it

There's nothing more frustrating than being stuck with the same song rattling around your head for hours at a time.

But for those of us who often find ourselves at the mercy of a particularly persistent 'earworm', there is now a solution.

'Earworm Eraser', developed by music psychologist Dr Kelly Jakubowski at Durham University, claims to be able to scrub any earworm from your brain in just seconds.

The 42-second audio features a jumbled mess of musical styles designed to delete the song from the listener's mind, all accompanied by a bizarre animation. 

So, if you happen to have a tune trapped in your brain, watch the video to see if it can bring you some relief.

The 'Earworm Eraser' claims to have been scientifically designed to break the looping patterns of mental activity that cause earworms 

According to software firm Atlassian, which commissioned the video, playing the clip is enough to erase even the most deeply embedded song.  

The video description calls the audio 'a scientifically-engineered track designed to get rid of earworms for good.'

Atlassian continues: 'The Earworm Eraser audio track works by incorporating scientific principles of music and the brain to disrupt the neural patterns that keep a catchy tune stuck in one's head.

'The track features a series of audio patterns and rhythmic structures that are carefully designed to break the loop of the song in the listener's mind.'

While this might not work for everyone who tries it, many of the commenters happily shared stories of their successes.

One wrote: 'Sometimes my earworms are so bad that I can't sleep and focus and eventually I just wish for my brain to shut down entirely, anyway this has genuinely helped my insomnia, thank you!'

Another added: 'I can't believe this actually worked. Wow.

'I woke up with a song stuck in my head and I have no idea why cause I def didn't listen to it and I've been humming it all day and it's been driving me mad.'

The 42-second audio track is accompanied by a bizarre animation depicting a literal worm in the mind 

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However, a few disgruntled commenters also reported a rather unfortunate side effect as they had now got the earworm eraser stuck in their head.

One commenter asked: 'So, what do you do when the song that's supposed to get rid of earworms puts one in your head?'

An earworm is a loop of music, usually around three to four bars, which involuntarily play in our heads on a loop.

Surveys estimate that 90 per cent of the population experiences an earworm at least once a week, while a quarter of us are blighted by repetitive tunes several times a day.

Recent studies have shown that listening to catchy tunes like 'Shake It Off' by Taylor Swift and 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen could lead to worse quality sleep.

A survey of 3,000 people conducted by Dr Jakubowski in 2016 found that some of the most common earworms included 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga, 'Don't Stop Believing' by Journey and Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head'.

Earworms are so pervasive that researchers have found that listening to catchy songs like Shake it Off by Taylor Swift (pictured) can lead to lower quality sleep

Studies have found that Don't Stop Believing by Journey (pictured) was one of the most common earworms. This may be due to its tempo and rise-and-fall melody which many earworms share 

In this 2016 study, Dr Jakubowski also found that the faster tempo and rise-and-fall melody of pop music tended to result in tunes which were more likely to stick in the mind.

Repetition of the song is also a key factor in determining whether a song becomes an earworm.

This might go some way to explain why advertising jingles and the most popular songs of the day tend to get lodged in our brains.

Due to this, some have suggested that television and social media might be behind a rise in earworm prevalence.

However, earworms date back to before the advent of recorded music and were even referenced in Mark Twain's short story, A Literary Nightmare, written in 1876.

Scientists aren't entirely sure why we get earworms or what causes them, but they appear to be a form of mental imagery.

In the same way that you conjure up the image of a place or recall a particularly strong smell, your mind is also capable of mentally recreating a song.

The difference between an earworm and these other forms of mental imagery is that earworms are involuntary.

One theory suggests that earworms tend to push into our awareness because of how music is represented in the mind.

If we want to imagine the tune of Happy Birthday we can't just imagine it all at once, we have to start at the first note and mentally 'play it all the way through'.

This could mean that the moment the song is prompted to our imagination, it starts to play itself through over and over again.

'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' by Kylie Minogue (pictured) has been identified by researchers as a particularly potent 'earworm' 

The first recorded reference to an earworm occurs in 1876 in a short story written by Mark Twain (pictured) called A Literary Nightmare in which he describes being haunted by a catchy jingle 

It is this loop which Earworm Eraser claims to disrupt with its garbled mix of rhythms and genres.

If it doesn't work, you might also try chewing gum which interrupts the 'articulatory muscles' need to mentally 'sing' a piece of music.

But if you are still blighted by an annoying tune, scientists advise that the best thing to do is simply ignore the song and let it fade away.

One 2010 research paper from Reading University says: 'Active attempts to block or eliminate the earworm are less successful than passive acceptance.'