10 EFFECT OF MUSIC ON MENTAL HEALTH

Now, music is something that everyone has heard, enjoyed or even got nostalgic while listening to it. Music can be something as loud as the one being played by your favorite band, as aesthetic as the sound of rain or even as subtle as the sound made by a wind chimer. Music makes us feel different kinds of emotions which in turn makes us dance, sing or even cry. The thing we hardly notice is the effect of music on mental health. So, now I will be elucidating on different kind of effect that music has on our mental health.

1.Improves cognitive performance.

A study conducted by Manuel Gonzalez of Baruch college and John Aiello of Rutgers university suggests that, listening to instrumental music while performing a cognitive task improves cognitive performance to a certain extent but this strategy does not work for everyone, in fact it depends on a person’s personality- specifically on their need for external stimulation. People high on this kind of stimulation tend to get bored easily and often perform worse when listening to music while performing a mental task.

On the other hand, people low on such stimulation tend to improve their cognitive performance while listening to music. Music has also been found to improve math skills in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It also affects both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, hence enabling a better problem solving ability. Therefore effect of music on mental health is such that it also increases our cognitive performance.

2.Effect of music on mental health in terms of aggression.

Now, this might look like something out of the blue but music can have negative effect on our mental health too. Researchers from Lowa state university and the Texas department of human services found that aggressive music lyrics increased aggressive thoughts and feelings, which further perpetuated aggressive behaviour and have long term effect such as the listener developing an aggressive personality. Many other researchers have also found that the content that we listen to does impact our behaviour in long term (if continued) and hence affect our mental health.

3.Can reduce stress.

We all at some time or other have listened to music when we were stressed to calm our mind down or just forget about the stressor, taken part in the trend where a type of music is used for meditation, relaxation or even used certain apps which produce calming music like the sound of rain, birds chirping, sound of the ocean waves, etc…Now, what happens while you are listening to a slower tempo music is that, it can quiet the mind and relax the muscles making us feel soothed and release the day’s stress , effect of music on mental health can also help us reduce stress.

In a 2013 study, the participants took part in one of the three conditions before being exposed to a stressors, few listened to relaxing music, rippling sound of water and one group didn’t listen to anything. The results of the experiment suggested that music had some impact on the stress response of a human especially their autonomic nervous system. The group listening to music was found to recover faster from a stressor. Music is also know to help in the production of stress reducing hormone-cortisol.

4.Effect of music on mental health in managing pain.

The therapeutic power of music dates back to ancient civilization which can be found in the writings of ancient philosophers like Aristotle and Plato. Music can heal both acute as well as chronic pains. It has been reported that a client who is being subjected to music therapy, reports less pain and anxiousness after a session of 30 minutes.

A 2015 research suggests that when the patients were made to listen to music either before, during or after a surgery, they experienced less pain and anxiety than those who did not listen to any music. Now, the reason music produces such effect is because it prompts our brain to produce certain chemicals called endorphins, which are also called as the feel good chemicals. The research further suggested that there was a slightly significant improvement in pain management when patients were allowed to select their favorite music.

5.Help sleep better.

As everyone’s life is getting busy and fast paced in this modern era, insomnia is becoming very common these days affecting all age groups. Effect of music on mental health can also help us sleep better. Nowadays we sleep with hundreds of thoughts in our mind which does not allow us to relax and fall asleep. Listening to pleasant songs while falling asleep can help our mind to get distracted from different thoughts, relax our mind and focus us on falling asleep. This is kind of like the time when we were kids and our parents sang lullabies for us to fall asleep.

A study was conducted where the participants were asked to listen to classical music, an audio book or nothing at all at bedtime. The study found out that the participants who listened to music at bed time had a better quality of sleep than the participants who listened to an audio book or nothing at all. As insomnia leads to many other problems like stress or anxiety, there is lot of awareness being raised in people and a trend is being followed where they listen to some music without any lyrics to help them fall asleep faster and also have better quality of sleep.

6.Effect of music on mental health in improving motivation.

There have been times in our life where we struggle with motivation to do something and keep on procrastinating which further leads to some or the other negative outcome. Scientific studies prove that music can improve your motivation. Music causes our brain to produce dopamine, a chemical which is responsible for motivation and goal oriented behavior. This might be the reason why some people like working out while listening to music.

An experiment was conducted in which the participants had to ride a stationary bike while listening to music, unknown to the participants the scientists make subtle changes over a period of time in the tempo of the music. Results of the experiment showed that speeding up the track increased their motivation resulting in them performing better while the opposite result was found when the track was slow paced.

7.Helps reduce symptoms of depression.

Depression is a mood disorder which affects how one feels, thinks and handles day to day activities. Researchers have found that music therapy can be an effective and safe method to treat various disorders like depression. It is considered a low-risk means to reduce depression and anxiety in various patients.

According to a 2011 study published in British journal of psychiatry by Finnish researchers, music therapy when combined with standard care, the patients showed steady improvement in depressive symptoms than those who just received standard care. Now, as we know about the effect of music on mental health is that, it can be a very effective mood booster but choosing the type of music is very important, classical and meditation music offer the greatest mood boosting benefits while metal and techno music are generally ineffective and even detrimental.

8.Help with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. 

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease in which the brain cell connection and the cells themselves degenerate and die effecting the person’s memory and important mental functions. Research suggests that listening to or singing songs can provide emotional and behavioral benefits for the people with Alzheimer and other types of dementia, as the musical memory is often preserved because the key brain areas related to musical memory remains undamaged by this disease.

Effect of music on mental health is enormous , can elicit emotions, help with memory, enable a person to connect to their past and increase the interconnection of people with their caregivers or other patients of dementia. According to a recent finding musical training can delay cognitive decline and promote brain plasticity in elderly brain. According to Dr.Laura Mosqueda, director of geriatrics at the University of California at the Irwin school of medicine suggests that, as music affects so many parts of brain, it may stimulate pathways that may still be healthy.

9. Improve mood.

Now, I know this might seem so obvious because I have spoken about effect of music on mental health and how music enhances our mood by making our brain release dopamine but let’s just get into some research in this topic and also some other factors affecting this.

Researchers in an experiment discovered that, music played an important role in arousal and mood. Participants rated that the ability to produce better mood and making them become more self-aware were the two most important abilities of music. Another study found that the participants who listened to positive reported to be happier than the other participants who did not listen to any positive music. One study found that five months old babies reacted to happy music and by the time they were nine months, sad songs seemed to affect them. Music can hence simply make us happier.

10. Improve memory.

Not able to remember is something we all struggle with in our daily lives. We forget the answer of a very important question In our exams, to get groceries from the shop, attending a meeting and so on, sometimes forgetting things makes us anxious or even make us feel frustrated at times thinking about the outcomes if we had not forgotten something and effect of music on mental health also includes improving our memory.

A study found that participants who were learning new language showed improvement in their knowledge when they practiced by singing the words or phrases or by just rhythmic speaking. Music tends to connect us to our past or the links we made with the song in the past, it can make us remember about a person we linked to while listening to the song in our past or even a certain situation. A research suggested that musically trained students tend to perform better at learning tests when they listened to neutral music.

References.

• www.verywellmind.com
• www.aarp.org>health>brain health.
• Hemaware.org
• Charlie.student.csu.edu.au
• Thriveglobal.com
• www.mayoclinic.org
• www.lifehack.org
• www.scientificamerican.com
• www.apa.org
• For pictures- pexels.com

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