Music and Your Health: A Pitch Perfect Match

The surprising mental and physical benefits of music

by Erika Branchcomb, Florida League of Cities

Music has been bringing people together and helping us communicate for more than 40,000 years. In addition to being a great unifier and a universal language, music has also been shown to positively affect our mental and physical well-being.

Music has been shown to reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, boost immunity, decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol and improve sleep quality, memory, mental alertness and mood.

As far back as ancient Greece, music has been used for healing and therapeutic purposes. Medical research on the subject grew during the 1800s. By the mid-20th century, universities and medical institutions began offering music therapy programs.

Music therapy has become a welcome alternative to traditional counseling options. This therapy can include listening to music, playing instruments, singing, songwriting, dancing and discussing music. Since music therapy does not rely solely on verbal communication, it can be highly effective for individuals who have issues communicating verbally due to disabilities, neurological conditions or traumatic brain injuries.

Listening to music also provides a workout for your brain. Because music combines math, structure and architecture based on relationships between the notes, our brain must engage in numerous ways to decode it. Research has discovered that music can stimulate brain waves to sync with the beat, allowing for better concentration and alertness with fast beats and producing a meditative and calming state with slower tempos. The benefits of these changes continue even after we’ve stopped listening to music, as they can also help the brain to shift gears more nimbly on its own.

Learning to play an instrument – even if it’s just a few lessons – has been shown to enhance problem-solving ability. Going outside your preferred genre and listening to new music (what kids or grandkids are listening to) can help boost your creativity. Conversely, finding comfort in your familiar favorites can help you recall memories from that time. For that reason, music therapy is very effective in helping patients with memory loss. Music memory is more resistant to dementia than other brain functions.

In addition to the benefits to your mind, listening to music can also benefit your body. Music therapy can assist pain management by reducing stress and providing a strong competing stimulus. Listening to upbeat songs during a workout can increase endurance. Playing soft music in the background during a meal encourages slower eating, which generally leads to eating less.

“Music in everyone’s life is absolutely therapeutic,” said Kyle Wilhelm, a Clinic Coordinator of the Music Therapy area at Colorado State University. “Whether you are focused on the music or not, you are still getting benefits from it.”

Erika Branchcomb is the Senior Communications Specialist at the Florida League of Cities.