A small study published in the August 2015 edition of Clinical Rheumatology evaluated participants' experience of listening to a relaxation CD that included music with water and wave sounds.
After listening every day for two weeks, researchers found that the participants had significantly less pain than when they'd begun.
A July 2015 study looked at whether music, with its emotional impact, would have a greater impact on pain than soothing environmental sounds. They also looked at both kinds of audio during rest and during activity.
They discovered that, after 20 minutes of listening, both types of sound significantly reduced pain and fatigue to similar degrees. The improvement only lasted for about 10 minutes after the listening session, though.
However, listening to either the music or sound appeared to keep pain from increasing during activity.
Earlier studies also have suggested reductions in pain and also depression, plus an increase in functional mobility after listening sessions.
One (Picard) suggested that using music as a sleep aid in fibromyalgia reduced daytime sleepiness and improved scores on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, but it did not find a decrease in pain.