Six miraculous psychological benefits of listening music

There are several science-backed benefits of listening to music. Music holds the power to change mood and even inspire action.

Whether you are depressed, stressed or even unable to sleep well, music can eliminate all these negative symptoms and improve your mood.

The psychological benefits of music can be powerful and wide-ranging.

Music therapy is adopted to promote emotional health, help patients to handle stress, and boost psychological well-being.

Some psychologists even suggest that a person’s taste in music can provide an insight into different aspects personality.

Improves cognitive abilities

Research suggests that background music or music that is played while primarily focused on some other activity, can dramatically improve performance on cognitive tasks.

Another study found that playing more rock or upbeat music leads to improvements in processing speed while both upbeat and downbeat music leads to improving memory.

Whether it is improving memory or keeping you alert while performing tiresome and boring tasks, using music to enhance your cognitive abilities can be immensely helpful in everyday life.

Relieves stress and anxiety

It is well known that good music relieves stress for many people.According to a study conducted in 2015, patients with generalized anxiety disorder responded positively to music therapy. Whether you have mild or severe anxiety, music can reduce its symptoms significantly.

Listening to music is an effective way to tackle stress. In a 2013 study, there was a stress test conducted for participants. Before that, some participants listened to relaxing music, others listened to the sound of rippling water and the rest received no auditory stimulation.

The results of the test suggested that listening to music created a great impact on the human stress level.

Those who had listened to music tended to recover more quickly than those who hadn’t.

Improve memory

Lots of students enjoy listening to music while studying. Some feel that listening to their favourite music helps improve with remembering, while others feel that it heightens concentration.

Research suggests that it might help, but it mainly depends upon the type of music, the listener’s enjoyment to the music and how musically well trained the listener is.

Different types of music create different types of impact on different people. So, while music may have an impact on memory, results vary depending upon the individual.

Music helps relieve symptoms of insomnia

Insomnia is a serious health problem that can affect people of all age groups. While there are many approaches to treating this problem as well as other sleeping disorders, research has found that listening to relaxing classical music can be an effective, safe and affordable remedy to fight sleeping problems.

A study found that participants who listened to music had comparatively better sleep quality than the people who received no intervention. Since music is an effective remedy for the treatment of sleeping problems, it could be used as an easy and safe strategy for treating insomnia.

Pumps up motivation

Researchers have found that listening to fast-paced music motivates people to work out even harder. Music creates a significant impact on your performance during a workout.

Studies on athletes have shown that listening to slow music actually slowed them down physically and mentally, while fast-paced music created the opposite effect.

Alleviates symptoms of depression

Depression usually requires treatment whether it is an anti-depressant, a talk therapy or even music therapy.

Studies have found that music is an efficient and cost-effective treatment for depression in children and teens.

Similar results have found in adults with additional benefits such as improved self-esteem and interpersonal skills.

A study found that while music has a great impact on mood, the type of music is also important. Classical and meditation music offers the greatest mood-boosting benefits, while heavy metal and techno music found to be ineffective and even harmful.

This article has been taken from health journal Thriveglobal.