Premature babies who listen to music by 18th century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gain weight faster than those who don’t, ScienceDaily reports.

At the Tel Aviv Medical Center (affiliated with Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine), researchers measured newborns’ energy expenditure before they heard the music and immediately after the music was played.

Scientists found that preterm babies who listened to 30 minutes of Mozart once a day burned less energy and needed fewer calories to grow rapidly than when they weren’t exposed to the music.

“The point of our research is to quantify these effects so that standards and care-guides can be developed. We still don’t know the long-term effects of the music, or if other kinds of music will work just as well,” said Dror Mandel, MD, one of the study’s lead investigators.

The research stems from a 1993 study showing that college students boosted their IQs by listening to a Mozart sonata for 10 minutes.

Going forward, Israeli researchers intend to explore the effects of different kinds of music on premature infants. They also plan to survey mothers to find out what type of music their babies heard while in the womb.

Find tips on how to take care of your preemie here.