The life changing benefits of listening to music
Andrew Copp, Staff Writer
Why do you listen to music? Is it to get hyped before a game/test/date? Is it to focus on studying or homework? Is it to listen socially and get closer with your friends? Whatever purpose it may be, music can help with. Music has been found to have some amazing benefits for your brain, social skills, and even physical health.
Brain benefits
When listening to music, the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe right above the ears is activated. But in fact, listening to music is a multisensory stimulus, meaning that areas all throughout the brain light up. Mary Jane Farmer, professor of psychology at North Greenville University highlighted this simultaneous connectivity of the brain as a main attribute of why music is so influential to humans.
She said, “so for us human beings, when we’re listening to music, a lot of areas get simulated. We’re not only talking of the ears and auditory cortex, but the temporal, sensory, and motor cortex.”
When music is able to activate so many regions of the brain, it is able to produce many different positive responses and therefore benefits.
One benefit she highlighted was the therapeutic benefits. Music has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, and improve your mood. It has been found in multiple studies that listening to music releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. Dopamine is known as the “feel good” hormone, because when it is released it improves mood and overall happiness. Not only this, dopamine assists in memory, learning, attention and focus.
Music has also been proven to lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone associated with the body’s response to stress. High cortisol levels are associated with anxiety, weight gain and high blood pressure.
Music can even assist with memory. When you listen to music, does it ever take you back? Is certain music associated with certain times, places, people etc? Given music’s ability to initiate so many parts of the brain, it can create vivid memories, with the music being the soundtrack to it all. This effect is so strong that music has been used medically with patients with dementia, allowing them to recount memories that they would’ve never otherwise been able to.
Another benefit is the effect that music can have on your emotions. When listening to music, the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, is heavily influenced by the kind of music that is being listened to. For example, loud, faster paced music can increase mood and energy levels. Whereas slower, more calm music can promote relaxation and chill emotion.
Similarly, the tempo of music also affects brain waves by synchronizing them with that of the music. These waves are broken into slower frequency, alpha and theta, and higher frequency, beta and gamma. Slower frequency waves are associated with relaxation and calming, whereas higher frequency waves are associated with alertness and overall cognitive activity.
So, if you want to get hyped up and focused, fast tempo, high energy music, such as rock, hip-hop and rap will assist you. If you are looking to wind down and relax your mind, slow tempo, low energy music, such as classical, r&b or jazz music would be best.
“That’s why when you exercise, you use bouncy upbeat music, you don’t use music that is for a funeral,” Farmer said.
But it is not just as simple as the instrumental or beat of music, the lyrical content within the music has a great impact on your thoughts, emotions, and even behavior as well. Music with lyrics in general has been found to be averse to focus, memory, and reading comprehension. Whether focused on them or not, the brain is actively listening to and processing the lyrics of music. Hence why it can be difficult to focus, read, or type when listening to music. Given that the brain is processing the lyrics at all times, the actual content of the lyrics can affect one’s thoughts and predispositions. NGU Christian studies and criminal justice professor Josh Styles commented on this power of music.
“Because of how impactful music can be, because it gets stuck in our heads, it begins to shape what we think and believe,” he said. “We need to think long and hard about the music we listen to, especially on repeat or on a playlist.”
Social benefits
Music also has inherent social benefits. Before the creation of headphones and personal listening devices, listening to music was a mainly social action. It is rare to get thousands of people to gather together, but people do so everyday around the world for concerts and music festivals. For hundreds of years, societies have come together to create, dance to and enjoy music together.
When listening to music in groups, hormones called endorphins are released, which are similar to dopamine in their mood boosting properties. Endorphins are heavily involved in many shared behaviors, such as laughter and singing.
As mentioned previously, music creates strong memories which, when shared with others, can create shared social realities that can foster closer social connection within groups. Does that one song remind you of your best friend, dad, ex? Today’s age of online sharing has furthered these connections. Shared playlists, sending a song to a friend and blasting music in the car can all foster increased connection with others.
Physical benefits
Although less direct, music has been found to have beneficial effects on physical well-being as well. As previously mentioned, music releases multiple hormones that can have positive side effects on physical health. Farmer pointed out that listening to calming music helps to calm down stress, anxiety and pressure, all of which release cortisol.
Lowered cortisol levels can assist in weight loss. High cortisol increases appetite, promotes fat storage, reduces insulin sensitivity, and slows metabolism. Farmer also specified music’s ability to lower blood pressure and blood sugar. High blood pressure can contribute to heart attacks, strokes, and other complications. High blood sugar can lead to diabetes along with other issues.
Farmer also emphasized music’s ability to assist in something that assists with all of the above issues; sleep. Calming music can lower heart rate and regulate breathing, both of which contribute to a good night’s rest.
Bibliography
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