How Music Improves Brain Activity

Listening to music can always be entertaining. Many students even use music to improve concentration. Learn how music improves brain activity.

Music has a significant impact on many aspects of the brain, including stress relief, memory, and pain reduction. Listening to music is a great method to keep your brain engaged. Music Therapy addresses an individual’s physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs. It is quite popular around the world. As a student, you may face stress or anxiety, and find it hard to concentrate while studying. Music can aid students in improving their concentration while studying. Let’s find out the various benefits of listening to music, how music improves brain activity and concentration.

How Music Improves Brain Activity? 

According to the Stanford University study published in the journal ‘Neuron’, music activates those areas of the brain that are responsible for concentration, prediction, and updating events in the brain. It found that peak brain activity happened during short intervals between musical movements. Several other studies emphasize the connection between music and the brain. 

Certain genres have been shown that music improves brain activity and motivation. However, the best music for improving attention while studying depends on your personal preference. Music has the potential to change your ability to perceive time, reduce breakdowns, make you stronger and smarter, and stir up memories. It also makes you a better communicator, boosts your immune system, helps in repairing brain damage, and increases creativity. 

Below is the list of different genres of music that can help you to study: 

• Classical 
• Ambient 
• Rock 
• Jazz 
• Hip Hop 
• Nature Sounds 

Benefits of Listening to Music 

Music can particularly aid in the healing and stimulation of the human brain. Listening to music activates both the left and right brain simultaneously. The activation of both hemispheres can maximize your learning and improve your memory. Let’s look at some of how music can help you enhance your focus.  

Reduce Stress 

Music has a calming effect. Studying during exam time can be stressful. Music can be an effective stress reducer. You can listen to your favorite music while reviewing your class notes. You can also listen to music to help cut the surrounding noisy environment and focus better on studies. Calm and soothing music can reduce stress by lowering cortisol levels, which is the hormone released in response to stress. 

The University of Maryland Medical Center divulges that students should listen to music. According to the research, listening to relaxing music can reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety levels in heart patients. 

Improve Academic Performance 

We have already discussed the therapeutic effect of music and its role in reducing stress levels. It is also found that music improves brain activity and student’s academic performance. Academic performance has always been measured by the percentage or grades a student achieved in the exam but never scaled by the knowledge actually he/she accumulated. A World Bank report pointed out that though there is a significant increase in the number of students with a learning deficit is becoming alarming.  

Music can be an effective solution to learning deficits. Organizing regular music classes can significantly help improve a student’s prospective creative abilities. It also aids them to learn skills such as communication and teamwork while improving concentration. 

Increase Motivation 

Music can be a motivating factor for some students. It helps increase motivation by reducing stress and fatigue that kill motivation and enthusiasm. Music has positive effects on mental exhaustion caused by routine tasks that most students suffer during their study sessions. Through music, that can eventually be motivating. you as you learned new words. Music can bring your minds to peace to your mind., 

Music is a great neurological tool that helps change your mood. It is also a great motivational exercise. So, it is essential to listen to your favorite tunes while studying. 

Enhance Cognitive Performance  

Music is undoubtedly very powerful in terms of human emotions. It may also influence your cognition. When a person listens to music, it transforms him/her to another place and another time. But the question is how does music impacts cognition? We have already seen several possible impacts that music has on our brains. Let’s take classical music, which has been said to encourage brain activity, improve++ the ability to focus and retain information. Essentially, music helps improve your brain function, and background music may enhance performance on cognitive tasks.  

According to a study, listening to music allowed students to complete more questions in the time allotted and get more answers right. One another research found that the impact of music on cognitive function relies on its effect in improving a person’s emotional state.

Improve Memory 

Most students love listening to music while studying. Some feel that listening to their favorite music improves brain activity and their memory when they study. Conversely, many believe that it simply creates a pleasant distraction. Indeed, research suggests that music may help improve memory. However, it relies on a variety of factors, such as the type of music, listeners’ enjoyment of that music. Studies also suggest that listeners who are trained in music, learn better when listening to the genre they are trained in. This is mainly because such songs bring positive emotions without conflicting with memory formation. 

On the other hand, musically naive students can perform better when they listen to neutral music. 

Able to Manage Pain 

This might be surprising but, music can be very helpful in the management of pain. Already, music has been shown to lessen anxiety, fear, depression, pain-related distress, and blood pressure. In a study of fibromyalgia patients, researchers found that those who listened to music for only an hour per day experienced a significant reduction in pain compared to those in a control group. Listening to music lures and holds human attention and is emotionally engaging, particularly if a person likes the piece. Studies also demonstrate that music helps in pain tolerance and perception. It lessens anxiety and increases feelings of control over pain. 

Better Sleep Quality 

Many students face sleep disorders when their exams are closed. Not taking proper sleep or having sleep disorders may result in depression, fatigue, tiredness, and other problems in daytime functioning. When you listen to music, it helps reduce sympathetic nervous system activity, diminish anxiety, blood pressure, heart, and respiratory rate. This has positive effects on sleep through muscle relaxation and distraction from thoughts. Better sleep also depends on your music choice. Turito research indicates that listening to relaxing classical music can be an effective, safe and affordable remedy. 

Final Thoughts

Music has a wide range of benefits and psychological effects. Students may have different ways to be efficient and productive when listening to music while studying. Whether you like studying with music or in silence, it depends on you. 

It is definitely an effective way of improving concentration, but not the only way. Some students like listening to music however get distracted by the lyrics and their mind wander. In such a case, you can try listening to instrumental music. Whatever the case may be, a student’s ultimate aim should be to improve concentration. Magic doesn’t happen in a day, so give the method you are following some time. For best results, make your own way.