Music, Reactions to Stress, & Lupus

Meta-analysis: music and decreasing stress In 2004, Pelletier, C. reviewed and analyzed 22 quantitative studies where music decreased physiological arousal due to stress. She concluded that music, all by itself, AND music assisted relaxation techniques both significantly decreased physiological responses to stress. Interestingly, the amount of response was not standard for every person. There were significant differences when considering age, the type of stressor experienced, musical preferences, and previous music experience. This suggests that certain types of music are better for certain people. Also, certain music genres work best to combat particular stresses. This study was published in the Journal of Music Therapy. “Music is my world!” — More right than we know? Up until now, music works like a bandaid, applied after the fact to deal with stressful situations. But can music impact your perceptions of the world around you? We won’t dive into the ins and outs of individual perception. Interested in learning more? Then, the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Nobel-prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman is for you! A 2013 study by Yamasaki, T., et. al, published in the journal Psychology of Music examined the possibility that music could serve as a prism through which we view the world. In the study, participants rated four different environments using a scale of adjectives. The environments were: a quiet residential area traveling by train in the suburbs at a busy crossroads; AND in a tranquil park area While rating these environments, participants listened to a variety of music or to silence. Researchers rated the songs on their activity/energy level Fascinatingly, the researchers found that music changed people’s evaluations of the environment in the direction of the music’s energy. For example: Listening to highly active songs increased the activation rating of environments perceived as low energy without music, AND Listening to low activity songs decreased the activation rating of environments perceived as high energy without music. So, how can you make the world around you seem less chaotic? Listen to calming music. The other interesting finding was that listening to highly positive songs improved the way people described the environments around them. Happy music does seem to truly lead to happy days.

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