It’s long been known that playing and listening to music can stimulate the brain, boost creativity and improve learning.
Especially as we age, learning an instrument, singing in a choir or simply listening to a Mozart symphony can provide a thorough workout for the brain.
Here's the science. Sound waves travel as electrical signals through the auditory nerve to the brain stem. The brain then deciphers those signals, connecting each note to the next. It effectively rebuilds different elements of the signals (such as pitch and rhythm) as the mathematical structures we recognise as music. That's a lot of very complicated work!
But according to research by Johns Hopkins Medicine in the USA, music can also ‘reduce anxiety, blood pressure and pain, as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.’ Here are seven ways music can improve your physical health.
Seven benefits of listening to music
1. It can improve your heart health
Research has shown that music helps the blood to flow more easily. It does this by helping our blood vessels to dilate, improving circulation. This, in turn, means that oxygen and nutrients are delivered more efficiently to the body.
Listening to music, particularly classical or slow-tempo music, can also reduce your heart rate and lower blood pressure, by promoting relaxation and reducing our production of the 'stress hormone', cortisol (more on that shortly).
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Finally, music can increase levels in the blood of those ‘feel-good’, calming hormones, serotonin and endorphins.
Try: Satie, Gymnopédies
2. It can lift your mood
Here's another of the many benefits of music. It can boost the brain’s production of the ‘pleasure’ hormone dopamine, which helps relieve feelings of anxiety and depression. This is because music is processed by the amygdala – the part of the brain involved in mood and emotions.
It’s very similar to the way that aerobic exercise – like walking, biking and swimming – can boost mood and positivity through increased levels of serotonin in the body.
Try: Something joyous and uplifting. And music doesn't get much more joyous and uplifting than the first movement of Beethoven's dance-like Symphony No. 7.
3. It can reduce stress
When we’re feeling stressed there is a biological impact on the body. The adrenal glands start producing the hormone cortisol, which helps us find the focus and energy to deal with a challenging situation.
In the long-term, the continual release of cortisol keeps us in a perpetual state of ‘fight or flight’. In turn this can lead to anxiety, depression and even physical pain.
According to a 2021 study, quoted on PsychCentral, listening to ‘both personal and neutral selections of music... significantly “reduced cortisol levels”. This was found regardless of the music type.
And, similarly to the practice of meditation, listening to music with a slower pulse can actively reduce a stress-induced high heart rate, too. So largo and andante slow movements of concertos, symphonies and chamber music could work wonders for your heart.
Try: Some of the soothing, celestial music of the Medieval abbess and visionary Hildegard von Bingen:
4. It can help you to manage pain
Its ability to reduce both heart rate and stress hormones means that music is also your friend when it comes to pain management. It does this by providing a strong opposing stimulus to the brain’s pain signals. Music can reduce the way the brain interprets pain intensity as well. For this reason, music can have many benefits in geriatric and intensive care, or palliative medicine.
Research has also shown, for instance, that listening to music can reduce the pain in those suffering from fibromyalgia (widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue). It does this in several ways.
Most simply, music provides a competing stimulus that shifts attention away from pain. Since the brain processes pain and sound in overlapping regions, engaging with music can reduce the perception of pain intensity.
Try: something calm but stimulatingly intricate, we'd suggest. Like Bach's magnificent Brandenburg Concertos.
5. It can help you eat less
As incredible as it might sound, playing music during a meal can help you slow down while eating and, ultimately, consume less food in a single sitting. A 2012 study by Cornell University found that people tend to eat less at a restaurant when the lighting and music is softer and more ambient. In fact, this reduced calorie intake by 18%.
More so, research carried out by the University of Lincoln in collaboration with De Montfort University found that music can help those suffering with emotional eating tendencies.
Participants in the study were initially asked to recall sad memories. They then listened to pre-selected music, or were left in silence for three minutes, before taking part in a snack test. Those who ate in silence consumed over eight grams of snack foods whereas those listening to music ate significantly less – between four and five grams.
Try: Debussy, Images
6. It can get you exercising more
Listening to motivating, upbeat music can boost endurance and physical performance, helping you to nail that tough exercise session.
According to a study published in Scientific American, music creates a ‘rhythm response’ – or a tendency to synchronise your movements to the musical beat. This can help you maintain pace and use your energy more efficiently.
It also provides a distraction from the feeling of exhausted muscles, elevating your mood and replacing negative thoughts with a ‘can do’ attitude.
Among other benefits, studies have suggested that music can increase endurance during a workout by up to 15 per cent. Not only that, but exercising to music also appears to enhance our emotional states, making the activity significantly more enjoyable. It can even foster a positive mindset even during high-intensity workouts, helping individuals push through moments of near exhaustion.
Try: 'Mars' from Gustav Holst's The Planets, or Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5: perfect uptempo pieces to accompany gym sessions, running or other high-intensity workouts.
7. It can improve your balance
A study reported in Harvard Health found that music helped people over the age of 65 who were at risk of falling, but otherwise free of neurological and orthopaedic issues.
Half the 134 male and female participants were trained to walk and perform various physical movements in time to music, while the other half continued as normal. ‘At the end of six months, the "dancers" exhibited better gait and balance than their peers — and they also experienced 54% fewer falls.’
Try: Respighi, Ancient Airs and Dances