Listening to music can be fun, but can it make you healthier? Music can be a source of fun and enjoyment, but research shows there are other psychological benefits. It's not strange to believe that music can affect your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
If you have the experience of feeling energized or motivated by listening to your favorite music or listening to an emotional piece of tears, then you can well understand the power of music to affect mood.
But the psychological effects of music can be far more powerful and widespread than you might think. Music therapy is a therapeutic intervention that is sometimes used to improve mental health, help the patient overcome stress and increase general health. Some people even believe that your musical taste can provide an insight into different aspects of your personality.
Music can calm the mind, energize the body and even help manage pain better.
What are the other potential benefits of listening to music?
1. Improve perception and cognition performance
Research suggests that playing music as a context, while focusing on another activity, can enhance one's performance in tasks that require understanding. A study of fast-paced music downloads speeds up work and processing, and fast-paced music and mild rhythm can enhance memory.
It's better this time if you want to do something, play background music to improve your mental performance. Of course, we recommend going for wordless tunes so that your focus will not be confused with poetry and words.
2. Reducing stress
It has been said for years that music can help reduce and manage stress. Listening to gentle, relaxing music can be an effective way of overcoming stress, and that's what science has proven. In a 2013 study, participants were assigned to one of the conditions before being exposed to stress, and then subjected to a social psychological stress test. Some had listened to a relaxing music, others had heard little waves of water, and others had no hearing stimuli. The results showed that listening to music had an impact on the human response to stress, especially on the autonomic nervous system. People who listened to soothing music were able to recover more quickly after being exposed to stress.
3. Decreased appetite
One of the most amazing psychological effects of music is that it can be a useful weight loss tool. If you are trying to lose weight, listening to music while reducing ambient light can help you achieve your goal. According to studies, people who ate at light-weight restaurants where light music was played were 18 percent less likely to eat at other restaurants, why? Researchers have found that music and light help to create calmer conditions, thus making people feel more at ease and more comfortable eating and thus becoming more aware of their satiety time.
You also try to play some gentle music at home while eating and eat more slowly and consciously by creating a relaxing atmosphere.
4. Memory Improvement
Many students are accustomed to listening to music while studying, but is it really a good thing? Some people feel that listening to their favorite music helps their memory, while others listen to music simply for the sake of making the study more enjoyable, and some even find distracting while reading. Research shows that this can be useful, but depends on a variety of factors, including the type of music, the listener's enjoyment of the music, and even the amount of information and learning the listener has.
One study also found that people who were learning a new language learned the words better when they were singing new words and phrases in a rhythm than when they were reading them. So although music may affect memory, results may vary depending on the person. If you are one of the music-distracted people, it may be best to read in silence or play neutral tracks as background.
5. Help with pain management
Research has shown that music can be helpful in pain management. A study of fibromyalgia patients who received music for only one hour had a significant reduction in their pain. In one study, patients with fibromyalgia were divided into two groups, one that listened to music once a day for four weeks, and the other group with no music therapy. By the end of the four weeks, those who listened to music daily had significantly reduced their feelings of pain and depression. These results suggest that music therapy can be an important tool in the treatment of chronic pain.
A 2015 review found that patients who listened to music before, during, and after surgery had less pain and anxiety than those who did not. Listening to music is effective in all situations of pain, but researchers say listening to music before surgery has better results. The review looked at data collected from more than 7,000 patients and received less music to relieve those who listened to music. Even better results were recorded when the patient was allowed to choose his or her favorite music.
6. Help to sleep better
Insomnia or insomnia is a serious problem that affects people of all ages. There are many approaches to treat this problem and other common sleep disorders, while listening to soothing classical music can be a safe, effective, and accessible way.
In the study of the students, the students were divided into three groups; one group listened to classical music and the other listened to the audiobook. For three weeks, one group listened to soothing classical music for 45 minutes while another group listened to the audiobook while sleeping.
The researchers evaluated the sleep quality of these groups before and after the intervention and found that those who listened to music were significantly better than those who had listened to the audio book or had not listened to anything. Since music is an effective treatment for sleep problems, it can be an easy and harmless way to treat insomnia.
7. Increased motivation
There is a good reason that exercise makes it easier for you to listen to music; researchers have found that listening to fast-paced music motivates people to work harder. A study examined the impact of music on 12 healthy people who were pedaling on a stationary bicycle. In this experiment, in three different conditions, people listened to music with different rhythms and their performance was evaluated. Music in one condition had normal rhythm, in another condition the rhythm increased 10% and in another condition the rhythm decreased 10%.
How did changing the rhythm of music affect factors such as walking distance, heart rate, and music enjoyment? The researchers found that music with slower rhythms increased performance over pedestrian distance, pedal speed, and effort. But a decrease in the rhythm of the music has reduced all of these factors. So we recommend that if you really want to stick to your workout routine, it is best to prepare a list of fast-paced music to increase your motivation and enjoy the exercise and perform better.
8. Improve mood
Another psychological benefit of music is that it makes you happier. In a study of the reasons people listen to music, the researchers found that music played a role in improving mood. Music has helped people to be better able to create better self-awareness.
Another study of conscious and selective listening to positive music can show its effect well within two weeks. People were asked to try to reinforce their mood every day for two weeks by listening to positive music. When asked later to describe their happiness, they reported feeling happier after two weeks.
9. Reduce symptoms of depression
Researchers have found that music therapy can be an effective and harmless way to treat a variety of disorders such as depression. One study found that music therapy had no side effects in addition to reducing depression and anxiety in patients with neurological diseases such as dementia, stroke, and Parkinson's, meaning that the treatment was very safe and low-risk.
Another study has shown that the type of music is also important. The researchers found classical and relaxing music had the greatest impact on boosting mood, while the heavy metal and techno type was ineffective and even harmful.
10. Increased endurance
Another important psychological impact of music is its ability to enhance athletic performance. Usually, there is a rhythm to walking and running, and scientists have found that adding a strong, fast pounding rhythm can encourage people to speed up. Runners will not only be able to run faster by listening to music, but will also feel more motivated to continue and achieve more endurance.
The ideal rhythm for training is anything between 125 and 140 beats per minute. Research has shown that synchronizing body movements with music rhythm can improve performance and increase endurance, and these effects are more pronounced in low to moderate intensity exercises. In other words, an average person can enjoy the benefits of music more than a professional athlete by listening to music.
According to the researchers, music can produce more emotional and physiological arousal than drug or drug stimuli. Even listening to music before going to the club can also act as a stimulus. How can music really improve sports performance? Listening to music during exercise reduces one's perception of fatigue, thus making it harder to work with, but does not seem to be trying more because it focuses on music and is likely to notice symptoms of effort. And fatigue will become much less like breathing faster, sweating and muscle burning.