So...
Gotta wonder here. I have incredibly strong autonomous sensory meridian response to good music. When I describe it to my friends, they say it sounds like I am high. Someone who isn't me tried weed for medicinal reasons... brain infection that was nearly fatal, but it just induces sleep. Also tried MDMA... very little noticeable effect, likely due to my physical condition.
HOWEVER.
Caffeine. Crazy... really, really, crazy. I can drink a few cups of coffee or some red bull, then sit and listen to music for 10 hours straight. It's incredible how time flies.
When I have enough caffeine in the system, I can hear with exceptional focus. Sometimes it's frustrating when the music isn't quite right or the system I am using has unwanted characteristics.
Compression can cause a little bit of nausea in this state, and sub-bass becomes much less important to me... normally I am a total bass head.
Can anyone sympathize with me here? Anyone else go on music trips just with caffeine?
If so, what type of music do you prefer in a caffeinated state? Is that different than normal?
Gotta wonder here. I have incredibly strong autonomous sensory meridian response to good music. When I describe it to my friends, they say it sounds like I am high. Someone who isn't me tried weed for medicinal reasons... brain infection that was nearly fatal, but it just induces sleep. Also tried MDMA... very little noticeable effect, likely due to my physical condition.
HOWEVER.
Caffeine. Crazy... really, really, crazy. I can drink a few cups of coffee or some red bull, then sit and listen to music for 10 hours straight. It's incredible how time flies.
When I have enough caffeine in the system, I can hear with exceptional focus. Sometimes it's frustrating when the music isn't quite right or the system I am using has unwanted characteristics.
Compression can cause a little bit of nausea in this state, and sub-bass becomes much less important to me... normally I am a total bass head.
Can anyone sympathize with me here? Anyone else go on music trips just with caffeine?
If so, what type of music do you prefer in a caffeinated state? Is that different than normal?
Last edited:
Caffeine is not a magic drug, it simply causes glycogen (starch stored in the liver) to be converted to glucose, which increases blood sugar to the brain, allowing the brain to function at higher than normal energy level. You can perceive more details and meaning in the music and you can appreciate the music more deeply when the brain is fired up on sugar. And if the music is especially strong, or triggers memories associated with previous happy events, the music may even trigger a significant dopamine response, which is the ultimate prize.
Not sure about caffeine but just the right music can cause a mood lift alone. The right tune can send shivers down my spine and make my hairs stand up on end. Is this normal?
The following I do not advocate and I doubt is healthy...
Starvation can have an interesting effect when listening to music. I have pretty low body fat so doesn't take long without food before I start to suffer. Once the sufferance starts then one interesting effect is that my mood lifts and falls with the music. (especially EDM) Almost like flight or fight is starting to kick in and my GABA system is switching off? I do try to avoid this state though.
Paul
The following I do not advocate and I doubt is healthy...
Starvation can have an interesting effect when listening to music. I have pretty low body fat so doesn't take long without food before I start to suffer. Once the sufferance starts then one interesting effect is that my mood lifts and falls with the music. (especially EDM) Almost like flight or fight is starting to kick in and my GABA system is switching off? I do try to avoid this state though.
Paul
Great music, and great sound systems, should be matched with great coffee. Having a life long love affair with all three I can easily recommend www.SodoiCoffee.com as the best I've ever had.
Paul,
I know exactly what you are talking about, both with the shivers and the starvation.
My research indicates that our shared experience is linked to bipolar disorder.
I have spent 10-12 hours before, just listening to music and drinking red bull, when I had not eaten in 2-3 days. This is not rare, and it is extremely pleasant.
I'll check out sodoicoffee. Thanks for the tip.
I know exactly what you are talking about, both with the shivers and the starvation.
My research indicates that our shared experience is linked to bipolar disorder.
I have spent 10-12 hours before, just listening to music and drinking red bull, when I had not eaten in 2-3 days. This is not rare, and it is extremely pleasant.
I'll check out sodoicoffee. Thanks for the tip.
Not just me then. The other interesting point about listening to music in starvation mode is that I get strange emotions to tones or effects. Sometimes "long pan" sounds can cause a senses of fear...
You mention bipolar disorder. I have been treated for depression in the past but these days I think adult ADHD is more likely. The way I am matches the symptoms and the coping methods. Has ADHD appeared in your research?
Tonality - timbre - has a profound effect on our cerebellum, and can help us remember feelings that go with memories...
As far as bipolar/adhd go, I have a family history of bipolar, but I have only been treated for/told I have hyperactivity. The shivers you talk about are known as ASMR, and they go hand in hand with add/adhd.
CBD oils completely reverse any felt effects for me from caffeine, lack of food, lack of sleep. The musical experience can still be incredibly rich, but it is much more emotionally separate from how I feel. I find that listening to really complicated music, like Mahler, Copeland, Abasi, etc... much more pleasing when I am free to observe and listen instead of being swept away by the music.
Bob,
You're not one of those weirdos that hears music in his head 24/7/365, are you?
I seem to have that problem. Yes, 24/7 - drives my wife crazy when I'm drumming on the bed sound asleep snoring. My research indicates that it's related to both bipolar and some forms of autism. Dad was bipolar (but never diagnosed/treated), and my sister a bona fide schizo with papers to prove it. I think her problem was that she heard the music too - and the church told her it was wrong and evil, she tried to fight it (you can't) and it drover her to a breakdown.
Music (whether internal or external) has always had an emotional impact an order or two of magnitude more than it's "supposed" to for me than it does to "normal" people. Motion seems to intensify it. Never linked it to caffeine, but other drugs do seem to affect the music I'm "hearing". Back in high school I used to run, and I always attributed the effects to the "runner's high" I kept hearing about. Later in life when I took up much more intense sports (water skiing and cycling) I realized there was more to it. The music plays all the time, but if conditions are just right - where my wattage output is backed off just 1% below the blow up point for long enough - something happens. The music changes to another song spontaneously, gets incredibly loud, followed by a flood of emotions and a high that can't be experienced any other way. No need to **** money away on illegal drugs, but I do spend more than a little bit on bikes. Much more than I do on speakers, actually.
You're not one of those weirdos that hears music in his head 24/7/365, are you?
I seem to have that problem. Yes, 24/7 - drives my wife crazy when I'm drumming on the bed sound asleep snoring. My research indicates that it's related to both bipolar and some forms of autism. Dad was bipolar (but never diagnosed/treated), and my sister a bona fide schizo with papers to prove it. I think her problem was that she heard the music too - and the church told her it was wrong and evil, she tried to fight it (you can't) and it drover her to a breakdown. Music (whether internal or external) has always had an emotional impact an order or two of magnitude more than it's "supposed" to for me than it does to "normal" people. Motion seems to intensify it. Never linked it to caffeine, but other drugs do seem to affect the music I'm "hearing". Back in high school I used to run, and I always attributed the effects to the "runner's high" I kept hearing about. Later in life when I took up much more intense sports (water skiing and cycling) I realized there was more to it. The music plays all the time, but if conditions are just right - where my wattage output is backed off just 1% below the blow up point for long enough - something happens. The music changes to another song spontaneously, gets incredibly loud, followed by a flood of emotions and a high that can't be experienced any other way. No need to **** money away on illegal drugs, but I do spend more than a little bit on bikes. Much more than I do on speakers, actually.
Bob,
You're not one of those weirdos that hears music in his head 24/7/365, are you?
Music (whether internal or external) has always had an emotional impact an order or two of magnitude more than it's "supposed" to for me than it does to "normal" people. Motion seems to intensify it. Never linked it to caffeine, but other drugs do seem to affect the music I'm "hearing". Back in high school I used to run, and I always attributed the effects to the "runner's high" I kept hearing about. Later in life when I took up much more intense sports (water skiing and cycling) I realized there was more to it. The music plays all the time, but if conditions are just right - where my wattage output is backed off just 1% below the blow up point for long enough - something happens. The music changes to another song spontaneously, gets incredibly loud, followed by a flood of emotions and a high that can't be experienced any other way. No need to **** money away on illegal drugs, but I do spend more than a little bit on bikes. Much more than I do on speakers, actually.
I guess I am one of those weirdos.... lol
I listen to music 24/7... even while I sleep. If I turn it off, the music in my head turns on, and it just feeds off my mood and makes whatever mode I am in stronger. If I have a bad day... it's nothing but screamo and djent... but nothing that I have ever even listened too. I have recorded some, and other people find it incredibly affecting... scary or seraphic, depending on my mood. It takes a while to record music, because I have to be in just the right mood to write, perform, and mix it.
I completely empathize with you on the emotional front of music. Caffeine makes the music louder, and anything that requires me to focus turns it up. I heard music when I took the SATs in highschool, and I still hear music when I take quizes or exams of any sort.
I get that high you talk about if I focus on something for long enough... I used to get it when I did extreme sports at the skate park or when I would get ready to fight someone. I also get it when I am working on a heavy math/conceptual problem or anything like that. It can make me compulsive, and when I latch onto something that gives me that high, I often drop everything else. For example, I decided I wanted to get into FutureMark's Overclocking Hall of Fame... and for a week I did nothing else. I got it, and had that high nearly every step along the way.
Sometimes when I am depressed, I need the music to stop... but I can actually think about 2 songs at once, sometimes 3.... and so it used to be really hard to get the music out of my head. When I play drums, I can play two different tempos - one with the right hand, and one with the left. The only thing that can "override" the sound in my head is music that is more real... it has to sound better, it has to be higher quality, or just really freaking loud. For the last 6 years or so, I have listened to 7/4 and 5/4 based music while I sleep. It turns off the music in my head, and seems to help me rest better.
Ain't nobody need drugs if'n they got music.
I'm one too
When I got deeply into martial arts and shooting, I learnt to turn the music off and on and applied that to my cycle racing..... with interesting results in the latter two.
The only activity I cant switch the music off for is dancing, Latin American, Ballroom etc and the odd time I (or my partner!) have has always ended in disaster.
I tend not to speculate on these things too much, to do so drives me to art and utter chaos - usually with spectacular results, good or bad!
Reading these accounts is comforting. I thought I was mad but it appears I may not be normal but at least I'm not alone.
This music in the head all day long, get it too. Although, it is repeated musical phases over and over. Don't have to consciously think about the music it is already there.
There are times when it stops and that is mainly when I hit the zone that wg_ski talks about. When you hit 99% output. When I get there my heart rate is around 200bpm but stable, no palpitations etc. It's like a serene state when everything is tranquil and in equilibrium. When I reach this state doing high rep squats then I can rep away and not feel pain or the weight (and the music stops). Mental strength is the limit in that zone.
Adult ADHD - that's me (favourite so far). Even made this post difficult to write...
Paul
This music in the head all day long, get it too. Although, it is repeated musical phases over and over. Don't have to consciously think about the music it is already there.
There are times when it stops and that is mainly when I hit the zone that wg_ski talks about. When you hit 99% output. When I get there my heart rate is around 200bpm but stable, no palpitations etc. It's like a serene state when everything is tranquil and in equilibrium. When I reach this state doing high rep squats then I can rep away and not feel pain or the weight (and the music stops). Mental strength is the limit in that zone.
Adult ADHD - that's me (favourite so far). Even made this post difficult to write...
Paul
Yeah, I have always had music going off in my head since i was a child 24/7. I think they call it "ear worms". I have a really early memory of waking up as a young child like 6 and i had composed a children's song in my sleep. I had never played an instrument or anything though it's like i made up a little tune in my sleep. And i quickly forgot how the tune went.
But it can be really annoying to me personally.
One of my other early memory of this is being in around 2nd grade class and this really crappy music from the radio my Mom listened to would keep popping in my head everyday. I came up with the idea that if i could think of a "cooler" song to get stuck in my head than the one that was already there it would make it better. So this stupid song "Livin in the Wild wild west, WILD WEST *Whip sound*"is going off on repeat in my head in this crappy boring class. Over and over *whip sound*
The best song i could come up with was Kool Moe Dee - Wild West to try an overide the music from Mix96. So instead of that whip sound i had "WILD WILD WEST"going over and over
I have had a couple of good experiences with it. I think it helps me compose my music that i have done over the years on guitar and recordings. There was one time when i went to Berklee in Boston and we played and listened to music for a little over a month straight with no break. I got home and laid on a bed in complete silence which i hadn't heard in a while. My mind started to play music i had never heard before automatically, really complex music which seemed like Hendrix, Miles, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood is the best lineup i could compare but it was in my head.
I am a caffeine and cig addict so i don't really listen to music any other way.
But it can be really annoying to me personally.
One of my other early memory of this is being in around 2nd grade class and this really crappy music from the radio my Mom listened to would keep popping in my head everyday. I came up with the idea that if i could think of a "cooler" song to get stuck in my head than the one that was already there it would make it better. So this stupid song "Livin in the Wild wild west, WILD WEST *Whip sound*"is going off on repeat in my head in this crappy boring class. Over and over *whip sound*
The best song i could come up with was Kool Moe Dee - Wild West to try an overide the music from Mix96. So instead of that whip sound i had "WILD WILD WEST"going over and over
I have had a couple of good experiences with it. I think it helps me compose my music that i have done over the years on guitar and recordings. There was one time when i went to Berklee in Boston and we played and listened to music for a little over a month straight with no break. I got home and laid on a bed in complete silence which i hadn't heard in a while. My mind started to play music i had never heard before automatically, really complex music which seemed like Hendrix, Miles, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood is the best lineup i could compare but it was in my head.
I am a caffeine and cig addict so i don't really listen to music any other way.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.