Music is something that is so intrinsic to our lives that we often forget it’s there. Elevator music, mall music, ever-present radios – we find ways to have it in our lives wherever we go, and it often influences our mood and thoughts when present. Music is impressive in that it can affect us in very specific ways, as well as have marked benefits for our lives.
If you’re interested in knowing how music can benefit your mental and physical health, read on.
Mental Health
- Mood Improvement – Music is able to boost your brain’s production of the hormone ‘dopamine.’ This hormone is related to mood, but also affects your anxiety and depression. Now, music won’t be replacing pharmaceuticals or therapy any time soon, but is able to help regulate and improve your mood.
- Stress Reduction – Because of music’s influence over hormonal production, stress is also something that can benefit from music. Music is processed by the brain’s amygdala, which directly controls emotional responses.
- Stimulate Memories – Alzheimer’s and dementia currently have no cure, but some symptoms can be managed through music therapy. Much has been done in the field of therapy to show how music can stimulate memories and aid in symptom control in mental disorders such as these.
Physical Health
- Heart Health – Research has been done to show that blood flow is improved when music is played. This is likely related to the hormones that music can help stimulate. This improvement includes reduced heart rate and lower blood pressure.
- Pain Management – The influence that music has over stress levels and hormones can improve pain management. The strong stimulation of music can compete with pain signals as well, providing several ways that music influences pain management.
- Eat Less – Playing soft music in the background, combined with dim lights, can help reduce the amount of food you eat in a meal. The combination can cause you to feel more restful, and decrease hormones related to appetite.
- Workout More – Listening to music is more than just something you can do to keep you entertained during a run, it also improves physical performance and increases endurance.
Music is more than just entertainment, it is something that has followed humans from the earliest days of our development. Thousands of years ago, humans had the same relationship with music that we have today. But we are only now beginning to really understand how music influences us on a fundamental level.