You’ve heard it over and over again: the last year has been super stressful. Many of us are fighting the pandemic blues and desperately hoping that spring will arrive a little early this year. That means we need all the stress-busting tools we can get.
Well, multiple studies have tested the ability of music to help people alleviate stress. Spoiler alert: music works! Classical music in particular has led to lower blood pressure and reduced anxiety among study participants.
It helps relieve pain.
A number of researchers have found that music helps chronic pain sufferers. It might be due to physiological effects, distraction, or both – but whatever the reason, it’s effective. And if it helps someone with chronic pain, it will almost certainly help the rest of us with occasional headaches or a touch of arthritis.
It can help you sleep.
Not only can mellow music help you fall asleep, it can actually improve the quality of your sleep, too. Tunes with a tempo of roughly 60 beats per minute seem best for falling asleep; try listening to some relaxing classical music for about 45 minutes before you go to bed.
It makes your brain happier.
Listening to music can awaken the parts of our brains that are linked not only to things like memory, but also to emotion and rewards. Mozart’s works seem to be particularly good at activating the brain. And listening to music we enjoy has been shown to trigger the release of the feel-good chemical dopamine.
There you go – great benefits and no downsides to listening to some tunes. That means it’s time to put together a new playlist!