Music is such a powerful tool. Listening to music can help pick us up if we’re feeling low, help motivate us to run that little bit longer or help us focus to get through that late evening at work. Have you ever noticed how music is used during a movie to provoke anticipation, sadness or happiness?
With all the advancements in science and research, we now know a little more about what’s really going on inside our brain when we listen to music. By listening to the right music, we can nurture and help our brain perform to its best ability.
Here’s six reasons why music is good for your brain:
Listening to music is great exercise for the brain. Your brain subliminally monitors melody, harmony and rhythm at the same time. For this reason, music can improve our learning ability, coordination and motor skills.
Music helps the release of dopamine, an organic chemical released by our neurons that boosts arousal, reward, motivation and reinforcement.
Music can enable the production of endorphins from the pituitary gland and the central nervous system. Endorphins are usually produced to inhibit pain, but they can also give a feeling of euphoria.
Music can help reduce the production of the stress hormone, Cortisol, that in the long run affects our learning capability, memory, blood pressure, cholesterol, and can increase the chances of heart disease.
Music can affect our heart rate. In some cases it might help in reducing stress, anxiety and insomnia.
Music is perceived through our senses and as such it is analysed by our right side of the brain - the intuitive, emotional and creative hemisphere. This side is the most neglected of the two, as we use the left side more frequently for logic, analysis, math, strategy, and making future plans. Activating the right side brings an increase of communication between the two hemispheres, allowing us to be more balanced, less stressed and less anxious.
So with all that goodness happening while we listen to music, we suggest you turn on your favourite tunes right away.
Or alternatively, if you want to enjoy even more benefits from music, we recommend listening to the brain-entraining good stuff.
More info on how binaural beats (brain-entraining music) is good for our brains can be found here.
Sources:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003566
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509123653.htm
https://psmag.com/education/music-training-enhances-childrens-verbal-intelligence-36701
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130212112017.htm