The Power of Music To Reduce Stress

While sex can reduce stress, it may not always be appropriate to heat things up when anxiety rolls in. Luckily, researchers suggest listening to music is an effective way to reduce physiological stress (and doesn’t require taking any clothes off). In one study, college students performed an oral presentation with either Pachaelbel’s Canon or no music in the background. Scientists found those lovely violins helped reduce anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure in participants who presented with the tune. While the science behind music therapy is relatively new, some experts suggest the brain’s response to music can help ease pain and depression and could even enhance creativity. (Who needs booze?) Slower musical beats can also alter brainwave speed, creating brainwave activity to when we’re in a more meditative or hypnotic state. For some people, listening to slow music is also a therapeutic way to reduce stress, headache pain, and even symptoms of PMS. Still stressin’ at night? Classical music may be an effective way to ease into falling asleep, which will hopefully lead to feeling more refreshed in the AM. Not a huge Beethoven fan? Don’t you worry ’bout a thing — just listen to this song instead. The dance-able, upbeat music at London's "Run to the Beat" race was selected on the basis of the research and consultation of sport psychologist Costas Karageorghis of Brunel University in England. He has learned how to devise soundtracks that are just as powerful, if not more so, as some of the not-so-legal substances that athletes commonly take to excel. "Music is a great way to regulate mood both before and during physical activity. A lot of athletes use music as if it's a legal drug," Karageorghis told LiveScience. "They can use it as a stimulant or as a sedative. Generally speaking, loud upbeat music has a stimulating effect and slow music reduces arousal." If you have ever visited a spa to relax, rejuvenate and escape from stress, you’ve probably noticed the type of ambient music playing. Typically it is soft, slow and sweeping. Often there are even sounds of nature laced throughout the instrumentals. There are no sharp spikes or heavy crashes. The music is never fast paced, and this is for good reason. Just as studies reveal the calming, anti-stress effects of gentle music, they also prove that hard, heavy, intense music can create converse results. All music has its own specific energy, and hard, fast rock or booming bass lines often cause muscle tension and elevated heart rate; two classic harbingers of stress.