The health benefits of music

There has been many research articles about the health benefits of listening to music. Recent research has again mentioned the benefits – for brain health, better physical coordination, improved sleep, pain relief, and dementia benefits.

Neurologic music therapist Brian Harris from the Harvard Medical School says that listening to calming music stimulates the part of the brain stem that controls heartbeat and respiration. So, music may lower the heart rate and blood pressure.

Neuroscientist Julia Jones (Dr Rock and founder of The Music Diet) says the foot-tapping, dancing, and playing an instrument – even air guitar – activates the motor cortex and sensory cortex of the brain. This can lead to better brain-to-body coordination and synchronisation.

Listening to relaxing music can trigger the body to mimic sleeping patterns by regulating the heart rate and breathing to reduce anxiety and improve sleep. This seems to be especially if music is heard before bedtime, and especially if it is instrumental music with no lyrics – just the sound.

Researchers at Brunel University in the United Kingdom say that music might be able to reduce pain and anxiety after surgery. They did a study of more than 7,000 hospital patients and found that those who listened to music following their surgery felt less pain and were less anxious compared to those who did not listen to music. They also needed less pain medication.

The American social worker Dan Cohen created the program Music & Memory that creates personalised playlists for people with chronic cognitive and physical impairment, including people with dementia and memory loss. It seems that listening to music evokes responses such as singing, foot-tapping, dancing, and movement which improves wellbeing. Listening to music was also found to reconnect the person to their loved ones through reminiscing about memories or just the love of music.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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