Music Makes a Better Sleep and Improves Brainpower
"Ever find that playing your favorite CD after a hard day, or listening to your favorite radio station before you go to bed, is soothing or actually helps put you in a better mood? There's a reason why many people are inherently drawn to music, and that's because music is far more than just noise in the background--it can actually help you to sleep better, improve your brainpower, reduce stress and more.
And this news couldn't have come at a better time, as a poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that three-quarters of American adults report problems with sleep. And as anyone who's ever had a restless night's sleep knows, not getting enough sleep can wreak havoc on your ability to function the next day.
Said Richard Gelula, the National Sleep Foundation's CEO, "People who sleep well, in general, are happier and healthier ... But when sleep is poor or inadequate, people feel tired or fatigued, their social and intimate relationships suffer, work productivity is negatively affected, and they make our roads more dangerous by driving while sleepy and less alert."
Fortunately, another study, published in the February 2005 edition of The Journal of Advanced Nursing, found that older adults with sleep problems who listened to soft music at bedtime reported a 35 percent improvement in their sleep. The participants slept longer and better, and had less daytime dysfunction, after listening to 45 minutes of music before bed.
"The difference between the music group and the control group was clinically significant," said Hui-Ling Lai, lead author of the study. "The music group reported a 26 percent overall improvement in the first week and this figure continued to rise as they mastered the technique of relaxing to the sedative music."
Music is not only good for sleeping, it's also good for your brain, according to a study published last year in the journal Heart & Lung. Researchers found that people who listened to music while they exercised performed more than twice as well on a verbal fluency test than people who listened to no music. The test was designed to challenge the part of the brain that deals with planning and abstract thought.
Said the study's lead author, Charles Emery, " ... Listening to music may influence cognitive function through different pathways in the brain. The combination of music and exercise may stimulate and increase cognitive arousal while helping to organize cognitive output."
Further, music can have an amazing impact on many aspects of our health, including our mood, stress level and even ability to tolerate pain. There's even a growing area of study called music therapy, in which music therapists work in medical and mental hospitals, day care centers, senior centers and more to help people with health problems ranging from Alzheimer's disease to acute and chronic pain.
According to the American Music Therapy Association, music can be used to:
- Reduce stress (either by making music, such as drumming, or listening to music passively for relaxation)
- Provide support for exercise
- Assist a woman with labor and delivery
- Alleviate pain in conjunction with anesthesia or pain medication
- Elevate mood and counteract depression
- Promote movement for physical rehabilitation
- Calm or sedate a person to induce sleep
- Relieve fear or apprehension
- Lesson muscle tension."
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