How to Get Rid of a Song Stuck in Your Head

It's one of life's small but persistent irritations: a song repeating over and over in your mind, maddeningly, sometimes for hours or days. Often it isn't even a song you like, and if it is, you soon grow to hate it. Entrenched as the tune may be, there are ways to dislodge it.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Sing a different song to yourself. It will probably knock out the original tune, and if the new one ends up also stuck, at least you've created some variation.
2. Sing the song aloud. Sometimes bringing the music out of your head and into the air will allow your brain to let go of it. On the other hand, it may make things worse.
3. Look up the lyrics on the Internet, if there's a section you can't remember. It's often the missing part that you obsess on, and completing the memory allows you to let it go.
4. Try to figure out the meaning this song has for you. Your unconscious has chosen it for a reason; the lyrics may refer to some repressed emotion that is ready to surface despite your resistance, or you may have heard the song in association with some event in your past. If you uncover and deal with the repressed emotion, your mind will no longer need to replay the song.