Healing Effects Of Music
It is a well-known fact that music helps people calm down and reduces the amount of stress they are feeling. As humans, we often tend to neglect how much we rely on music to help us get through the day.
Listening to joyful, cheerful music in the morning helps most people shake off the residue of sleep and start the day well. Many students play soft, instrumental music in the background to increase their concentration and help them focus better.
In this article, we specifically explore how music affects the brain and why music is a good way for people to cope with day-to-day stress.
Main Stressors In The Student’s Life
The life of every student is usually filled with coursework, assignments, and various projects in addition to internships, personal matters, and social life. In today’s fast-paced environment, it is easy for a student to get overwhelmed by the number of things going on in their life. There are many factors that can cause stress for a student. Some of these include:
- Academic stress from assignments in compulsory courses, which a student may not particularly enjoy studying. One way to manage these assignments is by outsourcing them to TopWritersReview, which can write essays for them. Reduced stress will lead to better academic performance in the disciplines that a student enjoys.
- Another source of stress for a student can come from having to pay for their tuition or living expenses while being a full-time student. Many students take up part-time work and many student loans to get through college.
- Other sources of stress can include adjusting to a changing lifestyle, potential family discord, or the stress of living alone.
Students who pursue an artistic hobby, such as listening to music, or learning to play a musical instrument have shown a significantly lower stress level, as numerous studies confirm.
Ways In Which Music Helps Students Deal With Stress
There are many ways in which music helps students deal with the stress that they are feeling in their day-to-day life. If you are wondering how music helps to deal with stress, read on and find out. In this segment of the article, we explore in detail the emotional and psychological aspects of music and its direct impact on the human cognitive process.
When a student, or anyone for that matter, is stressed, the brain releases a specific hormone, cortisol (also known as “the stress hormone”). An increase in the cortisol levels in the body for a short period of time gives the body the ability to deal with sensitive situations and promotes the fight or flight response. However, long-term exposure to high cortisol levels can lead to anxiety and depression.
Research into music therapy conducted by American Psychology Association in 2020 suggests that listening to music can help students and other individuals reduce stress in the following ways:
- It lowers the cortisol levels in the body.
- Reduces the effect of other stress-related symptoms on the body.
- Helps the body release endorphins to improve general well-being.
- Distracts the mind from focusing on direct stressors.
Let us dwell a little deeper to further understand how listening to music is directly responsible for stress reduction.
The human mind perceives music in the form of vibrations in the air that reach our eardrums. From our eardrums, these vibrations are converted into electrical signals and transmitted to our brain through neurons present in the auditory canal. These neurons are connected to the cerebral cortex in the brain.
When the cerebral cortex receives these signals, it identifies the type of music via the pitch, frequency, and amplitude of the wave. In this process, as a side effect, the brain signals the body to release endorphins, which reduces the effect of stress that we feel.
Other Benefits Of Listening To Music
Ultimately, music is an inexpensive tool that has proven to have numerous health benefits. According to surveys conducted in 2024 by the National Institute of Medicine, music therapy has various benefits for the human body. Here is some proof:
- 62% of participants in the survey responded that they are able to sleep better when they fall asleep to music.
- The same survey has shown that music improved the quality of life in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
- Using music as a tool for stress management has shown a direct impact on the overall mental health of the participants. It has shown a reduced risk of burnout and an increase in fitness, energy levels, and appetite.
- Even with mental health disorders such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder, it was found that using music therapy as one of the intervention methods had 68.5% of improved positive results.
Some Concluding Thoughts
Music is a great stress buster. People listen to music according to the mood that they are in – hence the reason there are many online playlists for heartache, joy, road trips, sleep, concentration, and more.
It has been proven with both scientific and experiential evidence that listening to music can be a great way to relieve stress for students and other individuals alike. It is also true that research into the positive effects of music is still ongoing, and every year more discoveries on the subject are being made.
In the end, however, it is known that there are no real negative effects of listening to music, so students are encouraged to keep blasting those tunes!
About the Author – Michael Carr
Michael Carr is a musician and counselor. He started his own online counseling academy for students during the pandemic to help them overcome stress. He began his clinic by offering traditional methods of counseling, however soon he realized that his music was helping students overcome stress better.
Therefore, he began doing research on the positive effects of music on the human body to understand this phenomenon, and he loves sharing his findings.
