How Singing Can Benefit Your Health
Always wondered what positive impacts singing can have on your daily life? Here’s a few facts about how singing can positively impact on your health;
1. Singing positively influences emotional and immune competence. A study by the University of Frankfurt shows that the effects of singing measured by secretory immunoglobulin, cortisol and emotional states. Article can be found here for reference.
2. Physical fitness – a workout doesn’t just mean how many push ups you can do, or how heavy you can lift on a weights bar. For example, to combat bad backs you would often start by tensing and untensing your abdomen muscles to strengthen your core and support the lower back. An easy exercise to be repeated 10 times a day. Equally, singing is a great workout too – it exercises your lungs, strengthens your diaphragm and core strength and increases your stamina. There are other reported benefits to your physical fitness such as increasing breathing capacity, but we’re not able to verify that as a fact.
3. Sleep – a study at the Exeter University and the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust saw 30 snorers try exercises targeted at the throat for a few minutes every day. At the end of the tiral, snoring had significantly improved compared to others who did not try the exercises. The programme of singing exercises was designed by singer teacher Alise Ojay. So there you have it – don’t be a snorer – be a singer!
4. Improve your posture – posture is so important in singing, as well as playing musical instruments, and maintaining good postures can only be positive for your physical wellbeing. Good posture allows the oxygen the circulate more freely through your body and increase your vocal capacity.
5. Depression – singing is a great natural anti-depressant. It releases muscle tension and decreases levels of cortisol, which is a known stres shormone. It also releases endorphins that make you feel and happy and uplifted. You will also have a ‘sacculus’ that you inherited from fish. Yes, that’s right. Fish. Researchers at Manchester University discovered that the ‘succulus’ is a pleasure-inducing hearing mechanism passed down through millions of years of evolution from fish to humans. It responds to sound frequencies that predominate in music. It has no hearing function in humans, except in that it is sensitive to volumes above 90 decibels. There’s a fascinating BBC news article on this which is well worth a read. You can find it here.
6. Increased brain activity and concentration – you don’t need to be a good singer for singing to benefit your brain activity, wellbeing and mood. The Alzheimers Society have a ‘Singing for the Brain’ group for people with dementia to help their brain activity. And lord knows, on those late nights in the office, putting on some rock n roll ballads certainly wakes up the brain and helps concentration! By the way, if you know someone who might benefit from Singing for the Brain then you can find out more here.
These are just some of the physical benefits singing can have but there are other ways too that singing positively impacts lives. They say a smile catches. Smile at someone and they tend to smile back. Singing has a similar affect (though I’m not suggesting you walk down the street singing in peoples faces….). Some of the other benefits are increasing your personal confidence, battling anxiety, widening that circle of friends, increasing your ability to communicate effectively with others to name but a few.
So if you haven’t tried singing, go on and give it a go. Join a local choir, take some private singing lessons, lock the doors and sing in the shower at the top of your voice. No matter how good or bad you are, or how in tune or out of tune you are, I guarantee that if you sing without a care, then you will 100% feel better afterwards.
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