Music is a huge part of my life. Listening to music, discovering new artists, and playing musical instruments all help me to relax and de-stress. It helps put me in a better mood and can calm me down when I am stressed or anxious. Recently I was searching on whether there was actually any scientific evidence of the effects of music on our mental health and I found a study done at McGill University that discovered that playing and listening to music can actually benefit your mental and physical health. In fact, they even found that listening to music could be more helpful than drugs in controlling anxiety before surgery. Specifically, they discovered that music can affect our management of mood, stress, immunity, and social bonding. It seems surprising that merely listening to sounds can help heal you and affect your neurochemistry and even immunity! I found this study to be especially interesting, as I always thought that music had more of a psychological effect rather than a physiological effect. There is evidence to believe that listening and playing music can affect our stress hormone levels as well as other biochemical mechanisms in our body.
As midterms are fast-approaching and you may be finding yourself stressed out, perhaps listening to or playing music might help you relax and ease those pre-exam jitters. If you are feeling extremely overwhelmed or you need to talk to somebody, don’t hesitate to check our campus resources at http://students.ubc.ca/livewell. Good luck on exams!
If you’re interested in learning more about this study or want to see the original research article then check out this link: https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/major-health-benefits-music-uncovered-225589
There are still many questions to be answered regarding the other effects that music might have on our mental and physical health, but the new findings are exciting nonetheless!
Written by Amanda Chao