As vivid music lovers, I am sure we can all attest to the, at times, magical effect that music can have on us, be it emotional, sensual or even physical. So thank God for science and its thirst for exploration and explanation of fascinating aspects of our everyday experiences so we can learn more about this interesting occurrence.

Enter: fascinating research into the relationship between our think-machines and music … And there is plenty of it, and no wonder, once you find out that MRI scans show that almost all parts of the brain light up when music is on. Let’s explore!

When trying to be creative turn the sound level to ‘medium’ when listening to music

This one study had the task of determining how ambient noise affects our brain. It turns out that at a moderate level of noise, around 70 dB, it “is likely to induce processing disfluency or processing difficulty, which activates abstract cognition and consequently enhances creative performance”. In other words, just the right level of music, not too loud or too quiet, can put you in a creative sweet-spot.

Put your music on when exercising for better results

Most of us have perhaps empirically come to the conclusion that we are better at sports and at our work-out routines when we are listening to music. Research shows that this can be due to the fact that when listening to music during low and moderate activities our brain can be distracted by our sweet tunes and ‘ignore’ the signals of fatigue that the body might be screaming at it. According to science, motivational music proved best for when exercising.

Research also showed that when listening to music the tempo of which was the same or slightly faster than the movement of the exercising individual – their body used up oxygen more effectively.

Music fights crime in its spare time

Bizarre, right? But research has shown that classical music can actually be a crime deterrent. Back in 2003 the London metro decided to play classical music at stations with high crime rates. Surprisingly enough, in 18 months time they noted a more than 30% decrease in theft, vandalism and assault on staff. The experiment has been done in several other places that had similar crime issues, such as Montreal and Portland, and the results were just the same – it appeared that classical music does indeed decrease crime. There are some theories as to why that might be happening: one can be that classical music acts as a stress relief, thus promoting a generally more positive and less violent mood among passengers.

Music can help you learn better and become more productive

Apparently, when listening to any type of music we like our cognition gets a positive boost. Music has also been linked to having a beneficial effect on reading skills and even mathematical abilities. It doesn’t stop there – it has been proven that some types of music can be amazing memory aids. Music with a beat pattern of 60 beats per minute, just like the tunes Mozart enjoyed to create, stimulates both the left and the right part of our brains, thus making us more productive and able to process information with more ease. When learning new information while listening to such tunes, one can later remember it just by playing the song in their mind.

This memory trick does not work so well with songs with vocals, as we are more likely to remember the lyrics than what we were trying to learn.

If you are looking to improve your productivity at work, research says that you should listen to rock or classical music, as they aid our ability to process letters and numbers.

Music is good for your health

The tunes on your iPod are basically cheap medicine and at times can be even more effective than pills. Impressive, right? So, what does the research say:

It decreases stress and relieves anxiety

In terms of calming your nerves, studies have shown that listening to slower, low-pitch instrumentals can decrease cortisol levels in the body, as well as your heart rate and blood pressure thus acting as a great stress-relief tool. Fascinatingly enough, one study showed that music played to patients who have just undergone open heart surgery proved to greatly decrease their s-cortisol levels and was thus recommended as a potentially valuable practice for recovery. Another study illustrated that pediatric patients exposed to 10-minute music sessions proved to experience a substantial decrease in heart rate, chosen as a way to measure stress, afterwards – greater than the one they had after a reading session or one with no interaction whatsoever.

It acts as a pain-relief

Several studies have showed that listening to music can decrease your pain levels. In 2013 researchers randomly got 60 people suffering from fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes chronic musculoskeletal pain, to listen to music once a day for a month. The group that listened to music reported significant pain reduction, as well as a decrease in depressive symptoms, as compared to the ones that didn’t.

Researchers are not sure exactly why music can aid in pain reduction. Some highlight the increase in dopamine that comes from listening to music, as well as music’s ability to reduce stress which can also have an impact on pain.

It can give you an immunity boost

Imagine curing diseases just through music. An interesting study examined whether music had any effect on the levels of the IgA antibody, which has the difficult task of beating diseases up so that they don’t reek havoc on the body. Researchers tested the saliva of participants thirty minutes before and after asking them to listen for a while to several different sounds  – a tone click, radio broadcast, some soothing music and … nothing. So, guess what happened? When exposed to the soothing music, participants’ level of IgA had increased more than from listening to any of the other sounds, illustrating that music and not just random noise resonates positively with our immune system.

I am sure that this fascinating side of music has inspired you to surround yourself with it. Get in touch with fellow music-junkies on Drooble and exchange some thoughts on how music makes you feel. See you there! 🙂