Music can energize you when you’re tired, relax you when you’re stressed, and make you laugh or cry.
In a review of more than 400 studies, Canadian psychologists from McGill University looked at how music engages the body’s neurochemical systems for reward, motivation, pleasure, stress, arousal, immunity, and social affiliation. They found that neurochemical effects of music can boost the body’s immune system, reduce anxiety, help regulate mood, and increase social bonding.
The researchers believe that listening to music may stimulate the release of natural opioids within the brain. Some of the studies they analyzed suggested that music reduced post-operative pain and that listening to soothing music before operations lowered anxiety levels in patients just as well as taking Valium. And music is noninvasive, inexpensive, convenient, natural, and has no adverse side effects.