Sing it out: how singing a tune can help your health

Singing can boost your health on many levels, from reducing stress to boosting brain function and improving sleep

Pic: iStock

Bursting into song can make you feel good even if you are not blessed with the best singing voice. I am all but tone deaf yet have recently joined a ‘tuneless choir’, the premise of which is to sing as though no one is listening. 

The joy that comes with belting out the lyrics of your favourite song is unrivalled.

Community choirs are booming across Ireland with a 2022 study by the music therapy department at the University of Limerick showing that, for many, singing is a feel-good hobby.

The UL research team identified 185 groups singing for health and wellbeing, attracting people who would not normally believe their voice is tuneful enough for public performance, where no one is excluded from the swell of enthusiasm for song.

The study reported that social and communal singing can improve social connections and respiratory health, boost cognitive function, enhance mental health, reduce stress, and bring greater happiness.

Singing is a great stress-buster

Belting out a song can have a remarkable effect on stress levels, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. 

Provided you are singing in an environment that doesn’t make you feel anxious, singing was shown to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Neuroscientists at Western Michigan University also showed that singing boosts levels of the feelgood hormone oxytocin.

Dr Julie Christensen, a neuroscientist in the Department of Psychology at the City University of London, says, “Music and singing are an enormous stimulation for our brains. Countless studies have shown that it impacts our hormonal balance and decreases stress more effectively than any medication.”

Singing helps to slow age-related cognitive decline

Joining a choir could lead to better brain health in older age, according to a study published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry earlier this year. 

The researchers found music and regular singing were linked to better brain health through improving memory and the ability to solve complex tasks. Also, continuing to sing later in life brings even greater benefits.

“Overall, we think that being musical could be a way of harnessing the brain’s agility and resilience, known as cognitive reserve,” said lead author Anne Corbett, professor of dementia research at Exeter University.

“Our findings indicate that promoting musical education would be a valuable part of public health initiatives to promote a protective lifestyle for brain health, as would encouraging older adults to return to music in later life.”

Singing can stop you snoring and help you sleep

Singing helps to strengthen the throat muscles which, in turn, can reduce snoring even in people diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). 

Weak muscles in the soft palate of the mouth and the upper throat are a common underlying cause of chronic snoring and OSA. 

But specialists reporting in the International Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery showed that 20 minutes of singing exercises performed daily for three months helped to strengthen these muscles, reducing the frequency and severity of snoring, and improving quality of sleep compared to those who didn’t sing.

Singing relieves anxiety and depression

Social singing, as part of a choir or a community singing group, helps to alleviate low mood, partly by promoting a feeling of belonging, security and wellbeing, according to researchers reporting in the BMJ. 

The team interviewed participants to find out if joining a singing group for six months had an effect on the mental health of participants, some of whom had been diagnosed with anxiety or depression. 

Their findings revealed that the social singing experience was “a lifesaver” for some. 

The researchers concluded that most people considered it “a key component” — and for some, the only component — in their recovery and ongoing psychological stability.

Singing is the new yoga

If you sing in a choir, your heartbeat will be synchronised with that of other members, rising and falling in time with the tempo of the music. 

And, as your exhale occurs during song phrases and inhale between them, singing is also a form of controlled breathing which researchers reporting in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience suggest has the same benefits as breathing exercises in yoga. 

These effects were shown to “impose” a calm and regular breathing pattern that positively impacts heart rate and general health.

Singing could boost immunity

If you want to boost your immune system and help ward off illness, try singing along to favourite tunes rather than just listening to them.

German researchers from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University asked participants to sing or listen to music. 

Listening to music lowered stress hormones such as cortisol, but when they sang the benefits were even greater, with raised levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that fights off infection.

In another study of cancer patients, researchers found that singing in a choir for just one hour a week led to increases in levels of cytokines. These immune system proteins help the body to fight serious illness.