Recent studies have shown that music therapy and yoga music used in hospitals can help reduce patients’ heart rates prior to sleeping. It has previously been noted that music reduces anxiety in patients with heart disease.

When listening to music, the body’s heart changes as a way of adapting. High heart rate shows that the heart is able to adapt and low heart rate indicates a less adaptive heart. Low heart rate is also linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular events and even death.

Failure of the autonomic nervous system to adapt may trigger inflammation, which is linked to cardiovascular disease. Another possibility is that people with low heart rate variability already have subclinical cardiovascular disease.

A study which sought to examine the results of listening to yoga music, a type of soothing music, tracked 3 separate nights in which some people listened to yoga music before sleeping, some to pop music before sleeping and some with no music before sleeping.

Yoga music and other relaxing genres could boost mood.

During each session the heart rate was measured and it was found that it increased during yoga music, decreased during pop music and did not change during silence, meaning anxiety levels were reduced during yoga music and rose during pop and no music sessions. It’s been noted that holistic therapies such as music therapy cannot replace evidence-based drugs and interventions, and should only be used as an add-on, but this approach can still offer substantial benefits.

Music therapy can also reduce psychological stress among pregnant women. That includes anxiety and depression. Women who participated in a study were given copies of the CDs and asked to listen to them for 30 minutes a day for two weeks. They then completed a diary saying which CD they had listened to and what they were doing at the time.

Most of them listened to the music while they were resting, at bedtime or performing chores. The results showed much less stress in pregnant women after listening to music. Less depression also. Pregnancy is a unique and stressful period for many expectant mothers and they suffer anxiety and depression because of the long time period involved. In fact, anxiety and depression during pregnancy is a similar health problem to postnatal depression.

Any intervention that reduces these problems is a welcome respite to those searching for a solution, and as has been shown by these studies, listening to soothing music provides a simple and inexpensive way of reducing stress, anxiety and depression, especially during pregnancy.

For more simple tips on how to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and more, please be sure to visit my website for more information about all the natural approaches available to you.

References:
Chicago European Society of Cardiology. Listening to Yoga Music at Bedtime Is Good for the Heart. ScienceDaily, 27 August 2018. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180827080852.htm

Wiley – Blackwell. Soothing Music Reduces Stress, Anxiety And Depression During Pregnancy.
ScienceDaily, 14 October 2008. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081006093020.htm