Can Listening To Music Reduce Stress? Research, Benefits, And Genres

With your intended mood in mind, think of how you might organize the songs to bring you from your current emotional state to your desired. For example, if you started with an up-tempo piece of music that matched your initial state of high anxiety, find something a little slower for your next song. If you are trying to move toward a more relaxed state, select a piece of music that is slightly slower for your third song. The third piece should also have less instrumentation or vocals. The idea is to decrease the amount of stimulation in the music so that your playlist can facilitate a gradual transition while allowing you time to adjust to the music.

I totally agree that music is a stress reliever and that can help you be physically active. You must be the ultimate judge, however, of “relaxing music.” If Mozart isn’t quite doing it for you, explore other options that help you naturally relax. Not only can music distract you from “bodily awareness” aka the aches and pains of working out, it has a health effect too.

Simply even thinking about social situations may trigger stress. 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 of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Gross and John was used. The ERQ assesses two common trait emotion regulation strategies, reappraisal and suppression.

In one 2013 study, participants took part in one of three conditions before being exposed to a stressor and then taking a psychosocial stress test. Some participants listened to relaxing music, others listened to the sound of rippling water, and the rest received no auditory stimulation. The psychological effects of music can be powerful and wide-ranging. Music therapy is an intervention sometimes used to promote emotional health, help patients cope with stress, and boost psychological well-being. Some research even suggests that your taste in music can provide insight into different aspects of your personality. I love listening to music as a way to make myself feel better or to relax.



It plays an important role in making you think positive and increasing happiness. When music has a positive effect on the body of one person, it helps in spreading the positivity to other people as well. In the active music therapy, both the patients and the therapists work together by making use of instruments or using their voices and bodies for dancing and stretching. The instruments that are used in music therapy has been structured to involve a number of sensory organs that incorporate touch, sound, and sight. This increased dopamine production helps relieve feelings of anxiety and depression.

This involves making music up on the spot in response to a mood or a theme, such as making the sound of a storm using drums and a rainstick. Live musical interaction between a person and their therapist is important during music therapy. Many of the pathways the brain uses to process music are the same as the ones that process pain. So if the brain is focused, for instance, on the melody of a Mozart concerto, there won’t be much room left to relay the pain messages coming from a needle stick. Given below is a list of the ways in which music therapy affects the body as well as the brain. You'll also want to check your health insurance benefits prior to starting music therapy.

Passive music therapy is just as helpful, but involves a patient listening to either live or recorded music. Heart rate in response to the TSST (means ± SEM) in the experimental group listening to relaxing music , the control group listening to sound of rippling water , and deep sleep the control group resting without acoustic stimulation . This is where music therapy comes in.Music therapists work with individuals of all ages to help them communicate, process difficult experiences, and improve motor or cognitive functioning.

Music therapy also had significant benefit in preventing burnout in operating room staff. A 6-week study showed that after having access to 30-minute music listening sessions each day at work for a month, staff reported decreased stress levels and less emotional exhaustion. Ongoing or chronic stress can lead to developing an anxiety disorder, depression, chronic pain, and more.

Music has been widely studied and revered throughout human history for its ability to both entertain and heal. 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. If you’re feeling anxious or stressed, calming music can help to settle your mind. Several studies have shown that when people undergoing surgery hear calming music, they have lower blood pressure and need less pain medication than those who don’t listen to soothing music. Aside from helping with mental health conditions, music therapy also has numerous other benefits, such as providing a creative outlet, expanding knowledge and cultural awareness, and improving cognitive skills such as memory. In addition to lessening acute pain, music can also help decrease chronic pain from recurrent bleeds in muscles and joints.

It’s also important to consider that while music can be a powerful tool for regulating and shifting your emotions, it's not a substitute for mental health treatment. If you have distressing emotional experiences that interfere with your ability to function, consider talking to a licensed mental health professional. The best music for stress reduction is the kind that works for you.