In this article, we take a sneak peek at some of the psychology facts about music that will leave you spellbound and will make you think that how such a complex thing as music can be so pleasing and simple for our brain to perceive.
Music is all about patterns, patterns to which we have been exposed since birth. Puzzles and simple maths equations are something that helps us build our brain when we are young and music is just like that, a “sound puzzle” that your brain tries to solve. To achieve this seemingly tedious task, the brain uses parts that are active for calculations and pattern solving. Which in turn, improves our analytical ability and approach to mathematical calculations.
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There is even a thing called music therapy where professionals use music as a medicine to cure patients with brain damage, heart disease, and many issues.
So, it’s better to include music in our day-to-day work/study schedule, listening to it can increase your productivity and make you feel refreshed. That are just a few positive neurological sides of music. We’ll talk more about the psychological Facts About Music of it in detail below.
Psychology Facts About Music Which You Might Not Know
Music Is A Great Stress Buster
It has been known for the longest time that music helps in managing and reducing stress. Cortisol, also known as “stress hormone”, is released when we feel stressed out, and listening to music helps in reducing and production of Cortisol. Not only this, but the brain rewards itself while listening to music through the release of Dopamine, the feel-good hormone.
So, next time when you’re feeling stressed out you know what to do. Put on your headphone, lay down for a bit, and chill to the beats you like. This is one of the Amazing Facts About Music.
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Music Improves Productivity
There have been studies conducted which show that listening to and playing music can make you more productive in all phases of life. It is also known that music with lyrics can be distracting, so background music is considered best to listen to while working.
Moreover, people who follow the Pomodoro way of working, believe that listening to music in-between tasks helps them to concentrate on long time-taking work.
Music Helps You Improve Mood
This one might seem super obvious to you. We have all been there, listening and dancing to the beats before we get the “high” feeling. Dopamine, the “feel good” hormone we talked about earlier, is released when the brain figures out the patterns involved in the song. Therefore, the easier the pattern, the more dopamine is released and the more dopamine is release, the better we feel.
You can check out mood-lifting playlists on Spotify and you’ll notice one common thing in all of the songs, please let us know in the comments what you think that is.
Music Helps You Sleep
Soothing music has been found to have a direct effect on the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you to relax and sleep. Plenty of researchers have compared the sleep cycle of those who listen to calming music to those who don’t, and it is pretty clear that music helps you relax and prepare for sleep. Let’s be honest no one wants to mess up their sleep pattern, insomnia is the worst thing that can happen to someone, it triggers so many other medical conditions like obesity and heart diseases.
Keep one thing in mind, your heart synchronizes with the bpm (beats per minute) of your song. So, a 60-80 bpm song will be ideal for relaxing and lowering your blood pressure.
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Music Improves Physical Performance
As said above, synchronizing your body movements to the bpm of a song can help to boost your performance, and increase stamina. Runners prefer to listen to music while running not only to run faster but they feel more motivated and show greater endurance. A 125-150 bpm song would be ideal for any kind of workout.
Moreover, some runners combine their playlists with some relaxing and soothing songs to listen to before their stretch, and they switch to high bpm songs while they are sprinting. So, it’s pretty obvious now that music is the best performance enhancer, with no side effects except don’t run into someone while running on the street.
Music Helps In Managing Pain And Anxiety
Music therapy is a burgeoning field these days. It uses the power of music to cure people suffering from anxiety, and depression by developing emotional responses. This helps them to relax, stimulate, and heal.
Research on fibromyalgia patients, according to verywellmind.com, showed that people who listen to music for approximately an hour a day experienced lesser pain than those who went for group rehab.
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Music Improves Your Memory
Scientists have found that listening to classical music has an impact on our memory and attention, especially music from Mozart and Vivaldi. And as we know that music can be relaxing and stress-busting, all of this provides a platform for the hippocampus, the working memory of the brain, to function actively.
To support this, researchers have shown that music learning students perform better in memory tests. But one thing that should be kept in mind the genre of music responsible for the above may be subjective for some.
Music Helps You Control Your Diet
This might be surprising to you but yes, one of the psychological benefits of music is that it can help you lose weight and control your diet. A study, according to verywellmind.com, on restaurants suggested that people eating at a place sounded with mellow music consumed around 18% less food than at any other restaurant.
So, you might want to tune into Spotify’s dinner playlist during dinner if you want to shred some fat, pun intended. With slow and mellow music and a low-lit dinner table, you might eat slowly and in turn, feel fuller sooner.
Music Helps You Work Efficiently
Working in an office, or at home in a noisy environment might be a tedious task for some. Focusing and meeting deadlines in that sort of environment can be no easier than climbing a mountain. Music can be great outsourcing for efficiency, listening to songs that you already know can help you focus and relax.
And as we know that music improves mood, and improved mood affects how you interact with your co-workers which leads to better teamwork and better results in your group.
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Music Can Improve Motivation
This is a nice point to round off today’s article. In every subtopic, be it the “sleeping” or the “working efficiently” one, there was motivation involved in all of them. Music brings relaxation and peace to our minds that make us feel motivated to do a task.
Thus, music, relaxation, and motivation are closely connected, as music helps us recharge and fuel our bodies and mind.
A word from Siachen Studios
Famous American music composer and pianist once quoted, “Music can be so powerful, even though it wafts away and we chase it.” That couldn’t be more true in Facts About Music. Personally, we should stop treating music only as a source of entertainment and also consider its mental and psychological benefits. Feel free to share your thoughts and playlists in the comments below. Make sure to leave a like and don’t forget to share the blog with your friends and family. Follow Siachen Studios and subscribe to our newsletter for more latest updates.
