While listening to our favorite music, some of us, might wonder ‘is music good for health?’ You will find a detailed answer in this article. Music can be a source of contentment and pleasure, but it has several other psychological benefits too. So, no one disagrees with the link between music and health. Research suggests that listening to music is not only entertaining, but it makes you healthier as well.
Music can help people in pain management, energize the body, and relax the mind. It can have a wide-ranging and powerful psychological effect. To boost psychological well-being, help patients cope with stress, and promote emotional health, professionals use music therapy. As per researches, your taste in music can give you insight into different aspects of your personality.
Music Connects Us
One of the most crucial functions of music, according to researchers, is social connectedness or a feeling of cohesion. As per evolutionary scientists, since our ancestors descended from arboreal species, we have developed a dependence on music as a communication tool. Music remains an essential tool to unite people in several ways, just like:
- Lullabies lead to the development of attachments between the infants and the parents.
- In the houses of worship, hymns build group identity.
- National anthems connect crowds.
- During courtship, love songs help with the prospective couple’s strong bond.
- During marches, protest songs excite shared purpose.
The following benefits will tell you how music is good for the health of us as individuals?
Benefits of Music
Just like the gym helps firm up your body, the same way listening to music is an exercise for your brain. Music has the power to enhance your stress levels, energy, memory, sleep quality, mental alertness, and moods. Moreover, it can reduce pain, blood pressure, and anxiety. The diversity in music has a variety of wellness and health benefits.
- Reduces Anxiety and Pain
In 2015, MNT reported on a study that music may minimize anxiety and pain for the undergone surgery patients. Brunel University in the United Kingdom led the study. Moreover, according to studies, after a stroke, people in rehabilitation are more relaxed after listening to music for an hour.
A blend of natural sounds with music helps people feel less anxious. After music therapy, even the people facing critical illness experience reduced anxiety. A recent study that measured many stress indicators concluded that relaxing music relief anxiety when listened after a stressful event rather than before the stressful event.
- Leads to Better Learning
Johns Hopkins’ physicians recommend that you can stimulate your brain by listening to music. In MRI scans, Scientists can see the active areas of the brain lightening up. It is because the music engaged the brain. If you want to learn to play music, you may want to save arrangements to PDF using Soda PDF.
Even just the promise of listening to music, according to researchers, can make you want to learn more. In a 2019 study, when people had an expected song as their reward, their motivation to learn enhanced.
- Improves Cognitive Performance
Following the research, when older people primarily focus on another activity, background music can increase cognitive performance. The findings of one of the studies reveal that downbeat and upbeat music leads to benefits in memory. Moreover, it also disclosed that playing more upbeat music shows advancement in processing speed.
- Acts as a Stress Reliever
Music can help to manage or reduce stress. Listening to music is an effective way to deal with your stress. In a 2013 study, before exposing participants to stress, they took part in one of the three conditions and then took a psychosocial stress test. Some participants received no auditory stimulation, others listened to the sound of rippling water, and the rest listened to the relaxing music.
The results showed that the participants who had listened to the music recovered faster following a stressor. It also suggested that listening to music influenced the autonomic nervous system.
- Help Treat Mental Illness
Music has the power to change the brain. Listening to music activates the release of many neurochemicals, which play a vital role in mental health and brain function. They are as following:
- Stress hormones like norepinephrine, cortisol, and adrenaline.
- Oxytocin (stimulates the ability to connect to others).
- Dopamine (linked with reward and pleasure centers).
- Serotonin and immunity-related hormones.
However, it requires more research to precisely understand how you can therapeutically use music to treat mental illness. Some studies propose that music therapy can enhance social connectedness and quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia.
- Helps You Eat Less
The most surprising benefit of music is that it helps in weight loss. If you are trying to lose some weight, dimming the lights and listening to sweet-sounding music might help achieve your goals. As per a study, individuals who ate at restaurants with low lighting and soft music playing in the background ate 18% less food than other restaurants.
According to researchers, lighting and music help create a relaxed environment. Since the candidates were comfortable and relaxed, they may be more aware of when they got full and consumed food more slowly. You can also take it into practice while having dinner.
- Enhances Memory
You may have noticed that some specific songs have the ability to remind us of a particular event or period – some we want to forget, and some make us smile. Researchers are trying to find out whether music may improve memory recall.
The journal Gerontologist published a study last year assessing the music effect on memory recall in a person. The participants in this study were patients of early-stage dementia. The researchers randomly assigned 89 people with dementia and their caregivers to either usual care or a ten-week music listening coaching group / a ten-week singing coaching group.
The findings revealed that both the music listening and singing groups had better overall well-being and enhanced mood than the usual care group. Moreover, on cognitive assessments, both of these groups demonstrated better episodic memory. Compared to the usual care group, the singing group also showed improved working memory.
- Music Decreases Fatigue
Anyone who has ever turned on the radio and rolled down car windows knows how much music can be energizing. And there is solid science that backs up this lived experience. In 2015, the Shanghai University researchers found that listening to relaxing music helps maintain muscle endurance and reduces fatigue when people are engaged in a monotonous task.
In the people receiving cancer treatment, music therapy sessions lessened fatigue. Moreover, for the individuals engaged in demanding neuromuscular training, these sessions raised the fatigue threshold, boosting exercise performance.
- Effect of Music on Mood
Several researchers carried out interviews with groups to find out why they listen to music. The study participants vary widely concerning background, gender, and age. However, they reported outstandingly similar reasons.
The researchers found that one of the most common uses of music is: it aids individuals to manage their emotions. Furthermore, music has the power to help people process their feelings and change the mood.
Conclusion
Music has several psychological as well as physical benefits. It makes your mind strong the same way your workout strengthens your body. In short, it is the exercise of your brain.
There is a positive relationship between music and health. Music is a mood booster. You may have also found yourself listening to your favorite music while having a bad mood. So, is music good for your health? Yes, it is, without any doubt.