Rock On: The Health Benefits Of Listening To Your Favorite Music
You’ve likely heard that listening to classical music will make you, and your baby, smarter or that enjoying a bit of smooth jazz will calm your mood. But the truth is, it truly doesn’t matter what type of music you enjoy listening to. Simply listening to your favorite kind of music and allowing yourself to get into the beat of it has a variety of health benefits. So whether you enjoy rock n' roll, R&B, pop, country or metal, turn it up and enjoy not only the music you love but also the health benefits it has to offer.
Healthy For A Fetus' Development
One of the most well-known benefits of music is its effect on unborn babies. So if you’re carrying a child, definitely put some music on any time you can. While the auditory system is not developed until twenty-five weeks and its response is not recognizable until twenty-eight weeks, music even before that can help calm the mother, reduce heart rate, soothe both the mother and fetus and is altogether healthy for a fetus' neurological development. BellyBuds can be purchased to safely play music right to the womb.
More specifically, though, music has been found to benefit babies in numerous ways. Research indicates that newborns whose parents regularly exposed them to music in utero have better motor and cognitive skills, develop language faster, have longer attention spans, sleep better, and exhibit symptoms of colic less frequently. These benefits were found both from playing music as well as singing to the fetus.
Keep reading to find out how your favorite music can get you out of a funk.
Boosts Mood
If you’ve ever been in a miserable mood and turned on your favorite music only to find the funk lifted after a minute or two, then you know the power music has to improve mood. However, the evidence that music boosts mood isn’t just anecdotal. Several studies have shown the impact music can have on an individual’s overall mood and behavior – both positive and negative.
One of the major ways that music can impact mood is the emotional ties that individuals have to it. For instance, listening to sad music can make you feel upset in the same way that listening to your favorite upbeat music can make you feel joyous. Consider listening to music through Beats Headphones. This is also why individuals who run or workout regularly create playlists to help them push through a strenuous workout. Some research has also found that music can be helpful in stimulating new neural connections and affecting mood in this manner.
Next, discover how music unites us all and creates a sense of community.
Encourages Bonding & Empathy
Music is literally as old as time. In fact, a flute carved from bone and ivory was discovered in 2009 and dated over 35,000 years old. But that leaves us with the question of why music – a mostly pleasure-oriented activity – was important even during the hunting & gathering stage of human history. It was important then and still is because not only is music pleasurable, but it also plays a vital role in strengthening our social bonds, which was just as significant in early civilization as it is now.
Of course, music can be played or listened to independently; however, it is also a powerful social tool that encourages bonding and empathy. Research studies have indicated that music has an effect on the circuits in the brain that are responsible for empathy, trust, and cooperation, or in other words, the ability to connect with others. Consider purchasing aBose speakerto play your favourite music with your friends. This is one of the biggest reasons that music has survived for centuries and is still a powerful tool for human connection and interaction. So if you’ve been feeling a little disconnected lately, it may be time you plug into your favorite music and invite someone to enjoy it with you.
Continue reading to learn how music can also improve your physical health.
Improves Immunity & Heart Health
Music doesn’t just benefit mental and emotional health, though. It is also responsible for boosting essential markers of overall physical health, including both the immunity and cardiovascular systems. While more research needs to be done to identify precisely how music promotes health in these ways, the research is clear that music improves both immunity and heart health. Wireless headphones can be used while exercising for easy usage.
Studies done at McGill University in Montreal discovered that music lovers not only had better functioning immune systems, but they also had more antibodies as well as cells that fight specific germs, viruses, and bacteria. Additionally, studies reveal that listening to music can lower blood pressure, improve blood flow, and decrease recovery time following a heart episode or surgery. While joyful music is considered the most beneficial, any music that you particularly enjoy should have the same or similar effects.
Next, reveal how powerful music is with how it affects the mind.
Improves Memory & Speech
With its powerful connection to memories, music is also primarily known for its ability to affect memory and speech. There is some evidence to indicate that individuals who were previously only a shadow of themselves due to a traumatic life event or injury, may in a sense “come back to life” after regularly listening to their former playlists. This resurgence is the result of music’s ability to reactivate specific areas of the brain that are linked to memory, speech, reasoning, emotion, and reward.
To say music only improves memory and speech though is a gross understatement. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have uncovered that singing lyrics gave patients back the ability to speak following a stroke or brain injury. This phenomenon is a result of the singing ability originating in the right side of the brain – the undamaged portion for those patients for whom this treatment has worked. Singing is also a commonly used tool to help uninjured individuals learn words, phrases, and other valuable material faster, so it’s not only beneficial to those individuals with a grave health concern but anyone wishing to improve their overall memory and speaking ability.