21 hidden health benefits music lovers wish you knew

Listening to happy music at work can help you complete tasks more quickly, especially if you’re doing something repetitive such as checking e-mail or filing documents. One study showed that the accuracy and efficiency of surgeons improved when they worked with the music of their choice in the background. Cornell University researchers also found that upbeat tunes help workers cooperate and make group decisions that contribute to the good of the team.

Music decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol just as well as massage therapy does, according to a small 2010 study. Scientists randomly assigned anxious patients to listen to music either during massage therapy or while lying in a dim room. After three months, those who just listened to music experienced the same drop in anxiety as those who also got massages.

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Listening to music before surgery has been shown to ease anxiety and limit the need for sedatives. After surgery, it helps reduce pain. An analysis of 73 studies published in the Lancet in 2015 confirmed that listening to music before, during, or after surgery improves anxiety and pain levels, which in turn means less pain medication.

People come up with more creative solutions when they listen to happy, upbeat music than when they sit in silence, according to researchers from the Netherlands and Australia. It may be because music improves your brain’s flexibility or because it relaxes you enough for the creative juices to flow. But don’t play the music too loudly; research also has found that moderate volume provides the creativity sweet spot.

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When you listen to music, your brain releases dopamine, the same neuro­transmitter that’s released when you eat chocolate, have sex, or use cocaine. It’s also associated with being in love. One small study found that just the anticipation of knowing the best part of a song is coming can get the dopamine flowing.

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Feel like quitting a workout? Whether you’re running, biking or walking, you’ll go farther if you pump up the jams, studies have found. Music distracts you from your discomfort and motivates you to stay with the beat. The effect is so profound that the author of a 2012 review examining the psychological effects of music on exercise called music “a type of legal performance-enhancing drug.”

That rush of energy you feel when you put on your best power song is real. College-age men who were studied doing squats while listening to a favourite song took off more explosively and performed reps at greater speeds than those doing them in silence, one study found. People also sprint faster and hold heavy weights longer when listening to music.

Lullabies aren’t just for babies. Listening to music before bed can help you fall asleep faster, wake up less often during the night, and feel more rested in the morning, according to the National Sleep Foundation. In one study conducted in Taiwan, seniors with sleep problems who listened to 45 minutes of soft, slow music before bed reported a 35 per cent improvement in the duration of their shut-eye and less dysfunction throughout the day.

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Music has been used to heal for centuries, and now we’re learning why it works. The latest meta-analysis of 400 studies finds that listening to music promotes the body’s production of an antibody (called immunoglobulin A) that attacks viruses and bacteria, as well as natural “killer cells,” which kill invading viruses and cancerous cells.

Time does fly when you’re listening to music: Scientists have shown repeatedly that people judge a period of waiting as shorter when music is playing. Retailers use that to their advantage, playing music so you stay longer and spend more. For instance, more drinks and food are sold in bars and restaurants when music (especially slow music) is played. And grocery sales increase by 38 per cent when the background music is slow.