Music is very beneficial to our lives as humans. Music plays a part in our lives every day. We wake up to music from our alarms, we listen to music on our way to school, we listen to music on the way home from school, we listen to music in the car, and we listen to music before we go to bed. Also, websites dedicated to music have grown very popular! In fact, Pandora has over 200 million users!

I feel like music can actually boost my mood, and make me feel happier. It turns out, there is scientific evidence that proves this thought is correct! When you listen to music, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine gives you the feeling of pleasure. When your brain releases dopamine, you become more motivated to get things done, and overall, you feel happier. For an experiment, scientists had eight people come in with music that made them happy. After they listened to their music for fifteen minutes, the participants were injected with a substance that joins with dopamine receptors. When the scientists used a PET scanner, they could see the receptors moving in the participants’ blood. This indicated that the body had already released a lot of dopamine, just from listening to fifteen minutes of music! (news.discovery.com) However, this experiment released dopamine only because the music the people were listening to was music that moved them and was pleasurable to them.

The experiment was done again, but instead of listening to pleasurable, moving music, the patients listened to music that was the opposite. This time, when the chemical was injected into their blood, their dopamine receptors were still open. This shows that dopamine wasn’t moving through the blood stream like it had been before.

Music can also create physical changes in the human body. Some people’s heart rate goes up, or sometimes breathing rate goes up. It’s also common to get shivers or chills (news.discovery.com). Music can also act on the body, on metabolism and heartbeat

Music can even be used as therapy for people with depression. In one study, therapists worked one-on-one with adults dealing with depression. They had the patients listen to a trial of music that had been specifically chosen to use for depression. Results showed that music therapy could actually help people struggling with this disorder (bjp.rcpsych.org).

There are other ways music helps people besides making them happier. Music stimulates and wakes up the brain (thelearningweb.org). This can help people who are bored or tired.
Some types of music, such as slow classical music can release endorphins in the brain, which can make people more calm and focused. This music can also decrease stress hormones, lower heart rate and lower blood pressure (psychcentral.com).

Music absorbs our attention, so it can be helpful if you’re trying to do something such as meditating, when you don’t want your mind to wander (psychcentral.com).

Music can help the human body in so many different ways, from chemical changes in the brain to make you happier, to physical changes that can make you healthier.