VeryWell Mind: Music May Be Just as Powerful as Exercise in Improving Mental Health

"A new study published in JAMA Network Open found that the positive effects of enjoying music are comparable to the impacts of exercise in terms of mental health.

Based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of 26 studies, with 779 individuals total, researchers found that music interventions were associated with significant mental health improvement.

Understanding the Research

Researchers analyzed a total of 26 studies of music interventions, and found clear and quantitative moderate evidence that these were associated with clinically significant improvements in mental health.

Of the 26 reviewed, researchers found that 8 studies demonstrated that adding music interventions to usual treatment was associated with clinically significant mental health changes in various conditions.

Music Interventions May Benefit Many

Anna Boyd, LPC, a licensed professional counselor with Mindpath Health, says, "The impact of music on our human experience is undeniable."

The researchers concluded that there are many overlapping benefits between the music and exercise interventions, according to Boyd. "It is widely accepted that exercise boosts the impacts of self esteem and the increase of positive hormonal activity within the brain and body," she says.

By integrating music from the lens of drama therapy, Boyd highlights, "Like exercise, music elicits responses from the brain activity to respond to the vibrations that are associated with the act of listening and receiving."

Music Can Enhance Other Activities

Abby Klemm, MT-BC, a board certified music therapist, says, "These general findings show that finding ways to include music in your daily life can benefit your physical and mental quality of life."

Klemm explains, "In music therapy research, the largest consistency seems to be that an individual’s preferred music produces the strongest effects. Music affects many parts of the brain at once. One area of the brain it affects is our reward center."

Similar to other pleasurable activities, Klemm highlights how engaging in music can release neurotransmitters in the brain that increase motivation, improve mood, and decrease stress levels.

Klemm explains, "I’ve supported clients in actively creating music, as a way to express feelings that they don’t have words for. Other clients have listened to specific music to affect their mood – lower stress, improve self-esteem, distract from destructive urges, instill feelings of hope, etc."

Music Therapy Can Offer Self-Expression

Christina A. Myers, MMT, MT-BC, a board certified music therapist with Four Diamonds at Penn State Health Children's Hospital, says, "For readers who are just learning about this, it’s helpful to know that your body and mind can respond in a similar way to music as it does exercise."

Myers explains, "Whether on a run or at a workout class, you can energize the body by increasing your heart rate. With music, you can increase your beats per minute and other characteristics in the music, so that your body releases pleasure system hormones like dopamine and serotonin."

Powerful Untapped Resource in Music

Grace Meadows, FRSA, a qualified music therapist who has worked for the British Association for Music Therapy, and campaign director for Music for Dementia, says, "There is a clinically significant change in health-related quality of life when people are engaged with a music intervention."

Music may be a powerful untapped resource, which Meadows notes should be used more. "That might be using music as a motivator to move and exercise to, to lift mood and spirit, to connect with others through musical experiences to reduce social isolation and loneliness, or work with a music therapist to address psychological issues," she says.

In this way, Meadows recommends thinking about what music can offer. "Do you need it to soothe and relax you or motivate and inspire you? Do you need something that’s going to provide a distraction while you get on with everyday tasks or do you need something that will allow you to wind down after a long day and help reduce your cortisol levels?" she asks.

Once an understanding of what music offers is confirmed, Meadows notes choices can be made. "It could be something more rhythmic, upbeat and lively if you need motivation to get moving or something slower in tempo, possibly instrumental to help you relax both mind and body," she says.

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