Can “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees really help you stay alive?

Getting the proper number of CPR compressions per minute can be tricky.

Singing “Stayin’ Alive” during the process improves scores across the board because it acts like a “musical metronome.”

Via Pacific Standard:

…Dr. John Hafner of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria had 15 physicians and med students perform the 100-compression procedure (on mannequins) while listening to the Bee Gees classic “Stayin’ Alive.”

As Hafner reports in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, their mean compression rate was an excellent 109.1.

Five weeks later, they repeated the exercise while singing the song to themselves as a “musical memory aid.” Their mean rate increased to 113.2. The medical professionals reported that the “mental metronome” improved both “their technical ability and confidence in providing CPR.”