Singing the praises of melodious phrases
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
-- playwright William Congreve, from The Mourning Bride.
We've all heard of music's power to de-stress us. But normally, when we think of this power, it's in the context of LISTENING to music. Indeed, this phenomenon has been studied before (among humans, mammals, and plants, too), and has been proven to be somewhat true.
However, in a new twist on the old maxim, a group of researchers at a Pennsylvania wellness center recently decided to research the effects MAKING music has on people's stress levels, according to a recent CBSNews.com article. Never before - at least not to my knowledge - has this angle of the music-as-therapy idea been put to scientific rigor (sort of, as you'll see in a minute). And indeed, the findings of this research did bear out the assumption that making melodies soothes all that's savage within us.
But perhaps more remarkable than this actual finding (I mean, is anyone really surprised that making music calms stressed-out nerves?) is the ingenious, yet kind of diabolical way in which the study was conducted. You see, in order to measure music-making's effects on stressed-out people, first the researchers had to have a group of stressed-out people. And here's the funny-in-spite-of-itself way they induced a baseline of stress among 32 volunteers:
The study's masterminds first sequestered every member of the group and gave each of them a one-hour deadline to put together a jigsaw puzzle purposefully designed to be almost impossible - after telling them all that whoever had the most completed at the end of one hour would receive a cash prize. Stressful, right? A race against time in a competitive setting, with a nearly unachievable objective.
Well, that was just the beginning. Each of the volunteers was then repeatedly told that everyone else was doing much better than they were, and increasingly reminded that time was running out. I can just see the researchers standing there, hawking over the shoulders of these poor, sweating volunteers, every few minutes bull-horning them with: "Only 18 minutes left - you're way behind! C-mon, that piece doesn't fit there! What are you thinkin' man? You're never going to win!" Cruel, but hilarious, too, isn't it?
After an hour of this torture, the 32 volunteers' blood was tested for levels of 45 stress-related genes, which needless to say were going bonkers for most members of the group. They were then broken up into smaller groups and given various de-stressing activities, like reading and making music of various sorts (drumming, singing along with songs, playing improvisational tunes, etc.), while one unfortunate group was made to continue working on the impossible puzzle!
Needless to say, the musical group experienced the greatest reduction in these stress-marker genes over the same time period - completely reversing 19 of the 45, according to the study's authors. The reading group showed only a moderate reversal in 6 of the markers. Those who were forced to keep puzzling experienced no reduction in stress markers at all. Poor wretches - I hope they all got paid the $50 just for enduring the study.
What's my point in telling you all of this? Only this: If you're musically inclined, or were once upon a time, you may be doing your heart and mind a lot of good by banging out some tunes on the old piano, harmonica, or drums. Or maybe just by whistling or humming a few bars…
Maybe even by full-blown singin' in the rain.
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Tunes of our (bed) times
In a brief newsworthy nod to the benefits of music you HEAR, a recent Taiwanese study studied the effects of slow, soothing music on the sleep patterns of 5 dozen people aged 60 to 83 who'd reported difficulty getting restful sleep (a big problem in this age group).
According to a recent Reuters summary of the study, the research team divided the 60 seniors into two groups, one of them getting no aid in sleeping and the other given relaxing music for 45 minutes before bedtime. Not surprisingly, the "music" group experienced lower heart and respiratory rates.
They also reported a 26% overall improvement in sleep after just one week of this routine. Over time, this percentage increased as the subjects learned to relax and be receptive to the sedative powers of the tunes.
Moral? When it comes to sleep, favorite relaxing melodies beat counting sheep (I suspect they'll beat prescription sleep aids as well)!
The jury's still out on whether music outperforms my favorite sleep-inducer: Warm milk. If you can't get fresh, unhomogenized, non-ultra pasteurized milk, try a bowl of lettuce.
Hitting the right notes - and recommending the right measures,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
