How Music Affects the Nervous System and Mental Health
We all know that music can produce powerful emotions, but did you know that brain health can also be impacted by music? Music is a powerful force in our lives, lending itself to whatever mood we’re in, and that connection goes much deeper than we often think about. Music actually has healing powers, which can be incredibly helpful as a carer of someone who has dementia. When you choose the right music for your loved one or patient’s mind and apply it correctly, it can have a huge positive impact on their mental health. It can calm and soothe the nervous system as well as slow brain ageing.
Here’s how.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
To understand how music can physically impact your body and brain health, we first need to understand a bit of physiology. The vagus nerve is the body’s longest cranial nerve, running from the brain to the lower internal organs. It’s responsible for regulating the parasympathetic nervous system.
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is one of two parts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The PNS is responsible for restoring basic functions through rest and soothing the body. In comparison, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for our fight or flight responses. The PNS is a key player in our body’s response to trauma. When the SNS receives a threat that requires action - either fight or flight - the body reacts accordingly. The SNS prepares the body for intense physical demand, getting many of your organ systems ready to act.
Sounds stressful, right? It is! When you perceive things as a threat, your SNS reaction will leave your body and mind feeling tired, exhausted, and stressed afterward. To calm down, the PNS jumps into action, resetting your body into rest and digest mode. How does it do that? In part, through the vagus nerve.
How Does Music Affect the Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve is in close proximity to the ear, through which we hear sound and music. When we listen to music, the vibrations of the sound resonate in the eardrums before traveling through the vagus nerve. Since the vagus nerve is associated with important physical functions like heart rate, taste, swallowing, and digestion, it’s closely related to the “rest and digest” PNS. When the vagus nerve is activated, it stimulates the PNS and sends a signal that it’s time to relax.
When you apply the right music for your mind, you’re really choosing music that resonates in the vagus nerve, the kind that triggers a parasympathetic response that can soothe the body into a calmer state. This is how the vibrations of sound can soothe your physical body, which in turn soothes the mind! You can do the same for the person you care for, helping to soothe and calm them both physically and mentally.
The Nervous System and Brain Health Connection
We often think of trauma as a physical altercation, like a car crash. However, trauma is truly just the body’s response to an event. That means that when we trigger the SNS - our fight or flight response - we are experiencing an event that the body needs to respond to. In other words, we’re experiencing trauma.
We experience trauma of all sizes, sometimes even on a daily basis. When a person’s body reacts to the trauma, stress can persist for much longer than the perceived danger is present. If the body cannot properly restore that rest and digest state, that person will be in a constant state of stress, which can feel extremely exhausting.
Stress has a negative impact on the mind and the body. Not only does it make people feel tired and sluggish, but it can also be taxing on their mental health and even cause accelerated brain ageing. A 2018 study reviewed the memory and cognitive ability of middle-aged adults, those in their 40’s and 50’s. They found that adults who had higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, performed worse than those who had average cortisol. Higher cortisol levels were also linked to smaller brain volumes. Put simply, stress may cause brain ageing issues, such as brain shrinkage and impaired memory, which we can detect even before signs of dementia appear.
Clearly, the stress that we experience through our nervous system impacts both our physical health and our brain health. Managing stress means caring for both the body and mind.
Brain Health and The Right Music For Your Mind
So how do we protect those we care for from stress? Stress and trauma are inevitable parts of our lives - there’s no avoiding them. However, you can utilize a person’s physiology to help soothe their body, which can then calm their mind.
One such way to relax the body and protect brain health is through music therapy. We’ve studied music’s physiological effects for over 100 years. Multiple studies have shown that listening to sedative music or music with a slow tempo leads to a decrease in blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate. This is likely due to the link between the ears, vagus nerve, and parasympathetic nervous system.
While listening to music is great, people can also stimulate the vagus nerve by making their own music. Think of those “om” or “aum” meditation sounds you do in yoga class - have you ever wondered why they’re used in the practice? The larynx, or voice box, is connected to the vagus nerve. When you sing, hum, or say “om,” you activate the nerve. If you’re in a pinch and need to calm the person you care for down, ask them to try humming - they’ll likely notice that their heart rate slows and they feel more relaxed. You can do it with them and feel the same effects. Humming will also force you both to control your breathing, which is linked to the vagus nerve. In combination with controlled breathes, activating the vagus nerve will have you and the person you care for closer to zen in no time.
Of course, calming the body and relieving stress isn’t the only thing that music can do. It’s also great for stimulating the brain. Choosing the unique music that is right for the listener’s mind can actually put their brain through a workout, which can help improve short and long-term memory recall. It can also increase blood flow, concentration, and help them retain information.
Vera’s Music AI Technology
The brain needs stimulation in order to stay healthy. It can get used to doing the same old activities, and when it’s no longer challenged it generates fewer new cells. People need to have a reserve of cells to protect their brains from future cell loss. New cells also develop neurological plasticity, which is important for our brains to be able to adapt, rewire, and change themselves as we experience new things.
This is where Vera comes in! Vera is the trusted dementia carer tool that uses AI technology that gets to know the listener through its sign-up process, which allows it to create a music selection that is optimal for their unique brain. Not only does it recognise what their brain needs, but it also takes their favourite genres and artists into account. Once setup is complete, Vera provides them with three playlists to suit different scenarios: Relax, Reminisce, and Energise.
With the Relax playlist, the listener can activate the vagus nerve and calm the PNS, relieving stress. They can also work on memory and neuroplasticity with the Reminisce playlist, or mood and movement with the Energise playlist.
As a carer, being able to harness music as the wellness tool that it is allows you to help the patient work on their mental health as well as their brain health - all while fighting brain ageing!
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