1
UNSCRAMBLE AN ANAGRAM
In a Western Washington University study, participants did puzzles to try to cure earworms. Five-letter anagrams worked best.
2
CHEW GUM
Three minutes of gnashing on a stick of gum is the cure for earworms recommended by a recent Journal Of Experimental Psychology study. Works for Maroon 5 infections, apparently.
3
USE A ‘CURE SONG’
In a 2014 study by PLOS ONE, 12 per cent of participants said they tried to remove their earworms by listening to other songs that wouldn’t stick.
4
REPLACE IT
The site unhearit.com claims to help you ‘unhear’ songs by playing you equally catchy ones. Presumably some sort of sick joke...
5
SOLVE SUDOKUS
Western Washington University found that sudoku puzzles worked, but only if they were of an optimum difficulty level.
6
JUST PLAY THE DAMN THING
Some people insist that the best way to deal with an annoying snippet of music is to listen to the offending tune in its entirety.