Exploring the Potential of Music in Stress Reduction
Having the ability to recover from day-to-day stress is essential to maintain our psychological and physiological well-being. When we experience stress, our physical response involves increased heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol. Our psychological reaction to stress may include increased anxiety, distress, fatigue, and depressed mood. The recovery process from these physical and psychological symptoms occurs when stress is absent. However, the accumulative effect may significantly impact your long-term health when demands or stressors are continually present. Studies have linked chronic, insufficient stress recovery to the incidence of various stress-related disorders, including cardiovascular disease, burnout, and depression.
The Role of Music Listening in Stress Recovery
From a theoretical perspective, listening to music is thought to facilitate stress recovery through positive emotional experiences. This assumption is rooted in evidence that positive emotions activate the brain’s ‘pleasure and reward center,’ releasing hormones such as serotonin and dopamine, which help downregulate the physiological and psychological load reactions that are part of the stress response. Furthermore, studies have demonstrated that positive emotions interact with our stress systems in functionally meaningful ways, such as by lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol, significantly reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease in the long term.
Music Listening is a Personal Experience
Studies have demonstrated that individuals who listen to music in alignment with their emotional self-regulation goals (i.e., attempts at changing or maintaining emotional states) experience more positive emotions than those who listen to music incongruent with their goals. Studies suggest that self-selected songs for stress recovery can be categorized into 1) calm and 2) danceability and energy clusters. The first cluster (i.e., the calm cluster) includes songs that are less danceable and calmer than songs in the second (i.e., the energy cluster). Songs in the calm cluster include, for example, “Memories” by Maroon 5, “Good Times, Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin, and “The Long and Winding Road” by The Beatles. Songs in the energy cluster include, for example, “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran, “Northern Lights” by Ola Gjeilo, and “Keep Your Head Up” by Ben Howards. Despite differences in danceability, mode, and energy, songs in both clusters share commonalities in key, loudness, acoustics, instrumentals, liveness, musical valence, tempo, duration, and time signature, which is likely why both can reduce stress.
What’s Your Goal
Research also shows that it matters what the principal goal is underlying the choice to listen to music. Besides relaxation, participants in a recent study reported listening to music to experience positive emotions, cope with negative emotions, and distract themselves from negative thoughts after a stressful situation. This finding supports the notion that individuals use music listening to self-regulate their emotions. Studies show that individuals who listened to music congruent with their emotional self-regulation goals experienced (i.e., felt) higher positive and lower negative feelings than those who listened to music incongruent with their goals.
What This Means to You
Based on recent research, one readily available option to help you recover from the everyday stresses of life might be incorporating a music-listening practice into your daily routine. Here are some things to consider before you begin:
Pick music based on how you feel after listening. For example, if the song brings joy, hope, happiness, love, belonging, etc., it might be an excellent selection to help you reduce your stress.
Create a playlist based on your goals. For example, pick songs that help you achieve your emotional goals or that energize you to tackle a task.
You don’t have to listen alone. The whole family can enjoy a ready-made playlist to unwind from your day. Maybe even consider a sing-along.
You don’t need a special place to enjoy your music. You can listen to your playlist on the way home, to work, or even as part of your wind-down process to prepare for a good night’s sleep.
One Final Thought
Pay attention to how you feel after you enjoy your music. We change over time, and circumstances change. A song that brought us joy at some point may not have the same reaction. Please take a moment after each music listening session to explore your feelings. This is an excellent way to stay in touch with your feelings and help you reduce your stress.
