Is Listening to Music Good For Your Health?

A stereo system puts out vibrations that travel through the air and somehow get inside the ear canal. These vibrations tickle the eardrum and are transmitted into an electrical signal that travels through the auditory nerve to the brain stem, where it is reassembled into something we perceive as music. There are few things that stimulate the brain the way music does. If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great tool. From this table developed by Binaural Beats Meditation, you can see that the “Theta” brainwave state helps develop the best state for meditation and low energy tasks whilst states like “Delta” provide a deeper experience. There are five categories that binaural beats can be detected.

Discover just what music can do for your yoga practice at a Wanderlust Festival this summer. Every now and then during the workweek—usually around three in the afternoon—a familiar ache begins to saturate my forehead and pool in my temples. The glare of my computer screen appears to suddenly intensify. My eyes trace the contour of the same sentence two or three times, yet I fail to extract its meaning. There is so much more to do—so much work I genuinely enjoy—but my brain is telling me to stop.

During that hour, they would pray, relieve themselves, smoke tobacco, have sex and even visit neighbors. Some researchers have proposed that people are also physiologically inclined to snooze during a 2 P.M. “nap zone”—or what some might call the afternoon slump—because the brain prefers to toggle between sleep and wake more than once a day.

But music can also agitate and unsettle, experts have learned. From self-help books to aromatherapy, apps to weighted blankets, we've compiled the 10 best anxiety relief products of 2022. If you're feeling stressed, drinking a hot cup of tea may help. Meditation offers many benefits, and an app can help you make this practice a habit. Doctors may refer to the parasympathetic side as “rest and digest,” since it takes care of things when the body is at rest, while sympathetic is “fight or flight,” in charge of the body in motion.

But it depends upon a variety of factors, including the type of music, the listener's enjoyment of that music, and even how musically well-trained the listener may be. Listening to music can be an effective way to cope with stress. Verywell Mind's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Let your shoulders, your belly, and even the muscles in your face relax. Breathe in deeply through your nose, gently expanding your belly rather than your chest, then exhale through your mouth. Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by mental health professionals.

One of the most surprising psychological benefits of music is that it might be a helpful weight-loss tool. If you are trying to lose weight, listening to mellow music and dimming the lights might help you achieve your goals. The results suggested that listening to music had an impact on the human stress response, particularly the autonomic nervous system. Those who had listened to music tended to recover more quickly following a stressor. Healing Music The notion that music can influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors probably does not come as much of a surprise. If you've ever felt pumped up while listening to your favorite fast-paced rock anthem or been moved to tears by a tender live performance, then you easily understand the power of music to impact moods and even inspire action.