Chewing Gum Will Make Maroon 5 Go Away

You know the feeling: You're cooling down from spin class, the elastic from your Lululemon pants gnawing into hard-to-reach crevices of your nether regions, and you simply can't get that cardio mix out of your head. Maybe it's that "Rhythm of the Night" jam, or—more likely—the seminal Paula Abdul opus "Vibeology."

In any case, it is an earworm, and it is feasting on your brain.

But thank your unlucky, interval-counting, sweaty stars, because finally—after months of Nick Jonas' "Jealous" sadistically cackling in your psyche 24 hours a day—there is a cure. And it comes courtesy of researchers at the University of Reading, who recently found that chewing gum after hearing a song specifically designed by a team of Nordic producers to infect every crevice of your grey matter can actually make you think less often about it, releasing you from its cruel clutches.

The study was inspired by previous research that suggested that mouthing something to yourself or moving your jaw could interfere with short-term memory and "hearing" sounds in your head. This was the first, however, to treat the condition with chewing gum.

Dr. Phil Beaman, who led the study, said in a statement from the university, "The earworm phenomenon stretches back at least to the 19th century—Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain both referenced the experience in well-known works. The majority of us experience them for only short periods—perhaps just a few minutes—but others can experience them for two or three days, which can be extremely frustrating and debilitating."

To make the study as monstrously earworm-y as possible for the 98 people who volunteered to take part, the researchers played Maroon 5's "Payphone" and "Play Hard" by David Guetta. The subjects were then asked to record every instance in which they thought about the song or heard it in their heads. The group that chewed gum thought about their infectious jams a third less often than the control group.

Beaman suggested that the gum method is great for not only banishing Ariana Grande from your mind, but also other intrusive thoughts. "Interfering with our own 'inner speech' through a more sophisticated version of the gum-chewing approach may work more widely," he said. "However, more research is needed to see whether this will help counter symptoms of obsessive-compulsive and similar disorders."

So the next time you get "Bitch Better Have My Money" stuck on repeat in your mind, just reach for a pack of Camel Balls and chew the pain away.