It turns out you can’t beat the sounds of music when it comes to boosting your well-being. Several studies have shown it can lower anxiety, help sleep, increase brain power and encourage us to exercise. Here are the specifics:
Stress Reduction It’s no secret that stress triggers a host of illnesses. Research has shown that tuning into music can help reduce stress and anxiety while releasing feel-good hormones. According to a Japanese study, stress hormone levels (ACTH and cortisol) were measured in surgical patients just before anesthesia was administered. Patients who listened to soothing music immediately before showed a drop in stress hormones by more than 50 percent. The opposite happened to those who did not listen to music; their hormone levels showed a rise of more than 50 percent
Brain Boosting Leigh Rigby and George Caldwell, cognitive psychologists at Glasgow Caledonian University, monitored the brain activity of a group of 16 volunteers who were asked to perform a simple memory test while listening to rock and classical music. They were asked to do the same while listening to the sound of static and again in silence. Brain scans revealed that subjects required far less brainpower to complete the test successfully when music was playing than when there was only static or silence.
