Why music calms

Countless experts have investigated how listening to music can potentially have therapeutic effects on a range of mental and physical health conditions, or just as a way to cope with everyday life. Contemporary research suggests music has significant power to help reduce stress and anxiety, relieve pain, and improve focus among many more benefits. Stress — the feeling of emotional tension, overwhelm, or feeling unable to cope — affects us mentally and physically.

Stress has a biological impact that causes your body to release specific hormones and chemicals that activate your brain in certain ways. Short term, cortisol can help us find the focus and energy we need to deal with a difficult situation, but when the body is exposed to excess cortisol for a prolonged period of time, it causes perpetual, exhausting states of fight, flight, or freeze.

Ongoing or chronic stress can lead to developing an anxiety disorder , depression , chronic pain, and more.

Across time and space, music has had tremendous success as a tool for stress relief. While some types of music such as classical and ambient have long been studied for their calming effects, listening to your personal favorite music of any genre also has benefits.

A overview of research into music and stress suggests that listening to music can:. In recent years, this research has expanded in exciting and surprising new directions. Meditation is an ancient tradition that is practiced in cultures all over the world and is an integral part of some religions and types of yoga. There are many types of mediation, and people use some types to help treat mental and physical health conditions.

Usually, meditation aims to focus, center, calm, or direct your attention. It can also help relax our bodies. So it can pair well with music for some people. Often, music used for meditation has a slow tempo, which can reduce heart rate, and also lower anxiety and stress levels. Guided meditation involves music with a narrator or speaker that directs your energy flow and focus, or offers positive affirmations.

Music therapy is different from just listening to music, although listening is a big part of it! Music therapists work with a variety of patients of all ages.

Like other forms of therapy, including art therapy , music therapists plan individualized sessions to help you meet your goals. Music therapy can include goal-oriented music listening, playing and composing music, and songwriting, among other activities.

A study compared the effects of music therapy with a therapist versus music medicine where music was played without a therapist among people with cancer. How does it work? Scientists believe the effect may result from music actually shifting brain activity away from pain-related connectivity patterns, as well as creating positive emotions, and offering a distraction.

Stress causes emotional and psychological pain as well, which music can help alleviate. Listening to music has been shown to improve focus on certain tasks, especially if the task is more complex.

In one recent experiment , participants were asked to press a button anytime the hand on a special clock started moving. Additionally, they were told to refrain from any exercise activities 24 hours prior to the experiment.

Further, participants were asked to refrain from brushing their teeth or eating at least 60 minutes before the study. For their participation in the study, the participants were reimbursed with 50 Swiss Francs. An a priori power analysis was conducted to estimate the optimal sample size to answer the main hypothesis of a decreased cortisol response in the music group when compared to the control groups.

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Oral and written informed consent from all subjects was obtained. The experiment used a between subject design to compare the effect of acoustic stimulation independent variable on cortisol, sAA, HR, RSA, mood, and anxiety dependent variables. There were three conditions prior to a stress test Trier Social Stress Test, TSST, see description below : a music condition relaxing music listening prior to stress test, RM , a water sound condition an acoustic control condition including listening to sound of rippling water, SW and a control condition non-acoustic control condition including resting without acoustic stimulation, R.

Seventy-eight participants fulfilled all study requirements and were randomly assigned to one of the groups. Eighteen participants were not able to keep their appointment see Figure 1.

Randomization was accomplished through the use of a computer generated randomization list. All participants underwent a standardized psychosocial laboratory stress protocol. Specifically, they are told that the TSST consists of a public speaking task followed by a mental arithmetic task in front of an audience.

In the public speaking task lasting 5 minutes , participants are asked to apply for a job. In this simulated job interview, they are asked to talk about their personal qualifications for the chosen job, e. Right after the job interview, participants are explained the nature of the mental arithmetic task, which lasts for another 5 minutes. The participants have to calculate backwards in steps of 17 from the number After each calculation error the participants are asked to re-start calculating from In the current study, the standard TSST procedure as reported in the literature was slightly modified: in the Intro, the subjects were not told about the exact nature of the upcoming speaking task i.

For the current study, all examinations were conducted between and h to minimize the confounding effect of the hormonal diurnal rhythm. Circadian fluctuations of hormone levels are particularly pronounced in the morning hours and flatten throughout the day [ 52 , 53 ]. Participants arrived at the laboratory 60 min prior to the onset of the stress induction by the TSST Figure 2. Participants were then escorted to a non-intervention room, where they spent their waiting time between the actual experimental interventions.

Immediately after arrival, participants were informed by the main experimenter about the course of the experiment. Oral and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Right afterwards, the LifeShirt, an electrophysiological measurement device see below , was attached.

After an adaptation period of 30 min, a basal saliva sample T1, min was taken. The subjects were then brought to the intervention room, seated in a comfortable chair, and provided with headphones. After this, the participants were to undergo their assigned condition, i. RM, SW, or R for ten minutes. No instruction was given for any of the conditions. Immediately after this part a second saliva sample was taken T2, -5 min. In addition, the subjects completed various self-report stress measures see below at T1, before and after T2, at T3 and T4.

The stimulus was selected on the basis of previous research [ 6 ]. We decided to use a single standardized music stimulus, as this approach is thought to have a greater effect on stress reduction than music stimuli selected by the subjects themselves [ 54 ].

Further, we wanted to avoid possible influences of memory or subjective associations with self-chosen music stimuli by participants.

We included a non-music acoustic control condition, i. This control condition has been chosen to control for effects on psychological and physiological parameters, which might be caused by mere acoustic stimulation alone.

The sound of rippling water is missing the typical characteristics of music, such as a structured melody and rhythm. Still, it is an acoustic stimulus with a certain perceptual quality for the listener. What is more, in comparison to artificially produced sounds such as white or pink noise or single tones , the sound of rippling water may be presented for longer periods of time without exerting stress or boredom in the listener [ 50 ]. RSA is a measure for variations in HR within a breathing sequence; it is used as an indicator for parasympathetic cardiac control.

For the analysis of cortisol as an indicator of HPA axis activity [ 15 ] and salivary alpha-amylase sAA, as an indicator of autonomic activity [ 16 , 17 ], saliva was collected using small cotton swabs Salivettes, Sarstedt, Sevelen, Switzerland. Stimulated saliva was taken by having the participants gently chewing the cotton roll for 1 min. Thereafter, the cotton roll was placed into a small plastic tube.

All samples of one subject were analyzed in the same run to reduce error variance caused by imprecision of the intraassay. The assay is a kinetic colorimetric test. Demographic information such as age, education, medication intake, nicotine use and illnesses were collected using a demographic questionnaire. Questionnaires were used to investigate the role of music preference and psychological factors. Scores higher than 18 are suggestive of clinically relevant depression.

Depending on the dispositional preferred emotion regulation strategy, different cognitions, emotions, and behavior may result in and after emotional situations. To control for the impact of how emotions are regulated in general the validated German version [ 59 ] of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire ERQ by Gross and John [ 60 ] was used. The ERQ assesses two common trait emotion regulation strategies, reappraisal and suppression. Higher values on each scale denote greater expressiveness of the respective variable.

Visual analog scales VAS were employed to repeatedly measure subjective perception of stress during the experiment. Participants were required to rate how often they had experienced certain stressful situations during the past three months on a 5-point Likert scale. High values are indicative that the individual is often worried, overburdened, overstrained, and unacknowledged.

The STAI consists of two items questionnaires which assess state respectively trait levels of anxiety in clinical and non-clinical populations. Scores for both scales range between 20 low anxiety and 80 high anxiety. The STAI-state was used as a continuous measurement for possible changes in anxiety during the experiment. The STAI-trait was used to control for the effect of anxiety as a personality trait in our sample [ 63 ]. The stimuli questions were used to assess the subjective perception of either music or sound of rippling water.

Subjects were required to rate how much they liked the stimulus, and how relaxing they perceived the stimulus on a 5-point Likert scale immediately after the stimulus presentation. High values are indicative for increased liking and of an increased relaxing effect of the stimulus. Data analyses were performed using SPSS All reported results were corrected by the Greenhouse-Geisser procedure where appropriate violation of sphericity assumption [ 64 , 65 ].

In case of missing data, cases were excluded list wise. Analyses of variance ANOVAs for repeated measures were computed to analyze possible time, condition and interaction effects. The AUC I is related to the sensitivity of the biological system; it is pronouncing changes over time, and is characterized by accumulation of the error of the baseline, as the formula is based on the difference between the baseline and the subsequent measures [ 66 ].

To estimate the extent of stress reactivity of cortisol, sAA, HR, and RSA, we calculated the delta measures of the stress responses peak values after stressor minus baseline values before stressor , and refer to it as peak delta.

For the estimation of a recovery value, we subtracted the first baseline value after the stressor from the peak values after the stressor delta , and refer to it as recovery delta. All tests were two-tailed. Mean BDI scores of 5. Mean TICS summary scores of Mean STAI-trait scores of Regarding trait emotion regulation strategies, the mean scores of the two scales of the ERQ reappraisal mean 4. Randomization resulted in 20 participants undergoing the experimental condition RM , 20 participants undergoing the non-music acoustic control condition SW , and 20 participants undergoing the control condition without acoustic stimulation R.

TABLE 1. We found no significant differences between groups. One participant of the RM condition and two participants of the R condition showed levels of cortisol that were more than 3 standard deviations higher than the mean.

As a consequence, these participants were excluded from all further analyses. The stress protocol induced significant increases in salivary cortisol in all groups over time F 2. Without including the control variables, repeated-measures ANOVA revealed no significant group differences group-by-time interaction: F 4. Single controlled group comparisons revealed a significant difference between the RM and SW groups group-by-time interaction: F 2.

Without the inclusion of the control variables i. Also with the inclusion of the control variables, we found were no significant differences in sAA activity between groups group-by-time interaction: F 4. Cardiac measures changed significantly over the course of the experiment over time HR:F 3.

Also with the inclusion of the control variables, groups did not significantly differ over the course of the experiment concerning HR group-by-time interaction: F 5. Neither the VAS group-by-time interaction: F 5. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of listening to relaxing music prior to a laboratory stressor on endocrine, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional responses in healthy women. We hypothesized that those participants who listened to relaxing music prior to a stress task would show different stress responses in comparison to non-music control groups, i.

With regard to endocrine responses, we found significant differences between the music and the acoustic control condition in cortisol: highest cortisol concentrations were observed in individuals who were listening to music prior the stress task, lowest concentrations were found in those who were listening to the sound of rippling water. Although there was no significant effect of music regarding autonomic responses, we observed a trend towards a faster recovery in sAA activity and in RSA in the music group.

As for psychological measures, we did not find significant differences between the three groups. The lack of a decreased cortisol response in the music group corroborates findings of a previous study by Knight and Rickard [ 26 ]. To the best of our knowledge, that investigation is the only laboratory-based study in which the influence of music listening prior to a stressor was investigated.

However, the explanatory power of the findings was somewhat limited as the authors did not apply a stressor that was strong enough to elicit a significant cortisol stress response and that participants were examined in small groups 6—12 participants per condition.

As for the latter, recent research has suggested that music interventions might be more effective on an individual compared to the group level [ 54 ]. Nevertheless, even though we applied a significant stressor and tested our participants one-by-one, we did not find an attenuation of stress-induced cortisol levels after music listening.

We did not expect the observed relative increase of cortisol concentrations in the music group in comparison to the control groups. Our findings seem to be the opposite from what the majority of previous studies have reported when investigating the effect of music on baseline HPA axis functioning, i.

Our findings also seem to differ from the effects of music, when music is presented during suppressed cortisol response [ 73 ] or after a stressor decreased cortisol response [ 5 ]. Interpreting our findings in the light of these studies, we may deduce that the beneficial effect of music on HPA axis functioning depends on situational context rest vs. A possible explanation for the context-dependent influence may be the involvement of certain brain areas and their subdivisions, such as for instance the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, in both listening to music and stress processing [ 8 , 34 , 36 , 78 — 80 ].

It appears that music listening prior to the experience of stress may add to, facilitate, or increase subsequent HPA axis activation by a staggered activation of a partly shared neuronal network. It is of great interest that the lowest concentrations of cortisol were observed in the acoustic control condition i. Given that, to the best of our knowledge, no study so far has investigated the effects of natural sounds on stress-related HPA axis responses, we did not anticipate this outcome.

The sound of rippling water was equally preferred and perceived as relaxing as music by our participants. This may be a hint to differential effects on the HPA axis of music and non-music acoustic stimulation.

Due to the lack of studies on neuronal activation patterns of natural sounds it is difficult to determine the exact mechanisms for this effect, though. Although unexpected, the finding of decreased cortisol concentrations in the acoustic control condition is of potentially great relevance and may increase our understanding of mechanisms of beneficial interventions in natural environments, based on the concept of biophilia for instance [ 81 , 82 ].

As a consequence, humans indeed feel more comforted in natural than in urban environments. Lingering in natural environments, such as for instance in a forest, has been found to have significant beneficial physiological effects [ 83 ].

Accordingly, a detachment from natural environments might lead to decreased physical and psychological well-being [ 84 ]. It might therefore be reasoned that the sound of rippling water in our study had a relaxation effect stronger than that of music, due to its inherent characteristics as a sound of nature.

Of course, this notion is highly speculative. More studies are needed to examine the differential endocrine effects of natural and non-natural acoustic sound stimulation. We observed a differential influence of music listening on autonomic activity: music resulted in a faster autonomic recovery after stress compared to the control groups.

This partly corresponds with findings from an investigation by Arai et al. Music might thus facilitate autonomic recovery from a stressor in comparison to listening to non-musical sounds or no acoustic stimulation.

The fact that our finding only showed a statistical trend narrows its relevance, however. Other investigations assessing the effects of music on the ANS e. On the one hand, these findings correspond to investigations that found an increase of parasympathetic activity in response to sedative music listening [ 87 — 89 ]. On the other hand, our results corroborate findings from studies reporting decreased parasympathetic activity in response to stress [ 90 , 91 ].

Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Music can affect the body in many health-promoting ways, which is the basis for a growing field known as music therapy. However, you can use music in your daily life and achieve many stress relief benefits on your own. Put together a custom playlist for each of these activities and you may soon notice a significant decrease in stress.

You can wake yourself up with music and start your day feeling great. By selecting the right music, you can set the tone for a lower-stress day. Classical or instrumental music can help you wake up while keeping you calm and focused. If you have a big, busy day ahead that requires extra energy, try something that's upbeat and makes you want to dance and smile. Put an end to road rage by playing your favorite music in the car. Try switching to a classical station when you are really stressed out.

The soothing rhythms and sounds can calm you down and make your commute smoother. Good nutrition is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and it can actually keep your stress level down. Eating at home is a great way to ensure healthy meals and less expensive, but many people find themselves too tired to cook once they get home. If you put on some smooth jazz or a similar genre of music that you enjoy, cooking becomes a fun activity rather than a chore.

You will likely find yourself relaxed and in a better frame of mind once dinner starts, which can enable you to savor your dinner and your company as you eat. Soothing music can trigger the relaxation response , which can lower cortisol levels, making it easier to digest food.

However, if you throw on some energetic music hip-hop or pop, for example you can raise your energy level and have fun as you clean. If you tell yourself that you only need to clean for a certain amount of songs and then you can be done, you may work more efficiently.

Who knows, you may even come to look forward to doing the job.