1. Introduction
Stress has the potential to be a major health threat facilitating the development of disease and illness (McEwen, 1998). As stress is a ubiquitous phenomenon in everyday life, it is necessary to develop interventions that can target stress in daily life and thus prevent its detrimental effectson health. It is assumed that music listening has health- beneficial effects, which might be mediated by its potential stress-reducing effect (Thoma and Nater, 2011). However, the empirical evidence on the stress-reducing effect of listening to music is far from being consistent, and the underlying psychobiological mechanisms of this potential stress-reducing effect — especially in daily life — remain unknown.