Music improves health, mood, and sleep
Music has many therapeutic benefits for seniors and sometimes helps more than medication. In documentaries like Alive Inside, we’ve seen how music can deeply affect older adults with cognitive issues.
This study showed that in stressful pre-surgery situations, patients who listened to music rather than taking anti-anxiety meds actually had less anxiety and lower cortisol (stress) levels.
Other studies say that music can also:
- Reduce pain
- Reduce blood pressure
- Help post-stroke recovery
- Improve memory and engage people with memory disorders like Alzheimer’s or dementia
- Improve sleep
- Improve mood and decrease depression
- Have an anti-seizure effect
- Boost immune function
These are all great reasons to make music a part of your senior’s daily routine. As a bonus, music might help you feel happier and less stressed too!
Play the right music
To get these benefits, you need to play music that your older adult enjoys. If they still have their music collection, dig through those albums to find their favorite bands. Start by playing music from their youth and find something that brings that spark to their eyes.
Next Step Find music seniors will love! We rounded up dozens of top hits from every generation
You might also like:
— Alive Inside: Movie Shows How Music Helps Dementia
— 6 Everyday Products That Help with Caregiving
— Questions to Ask When Hiring a Caregiver
By DailyCaring Editorial Staff
Image: kamere
About the Author
Connie Chow
Connie was a hands-on caregiver for her grandmother for 20 years. (Grandma made it to 101 years old!) She knows how challenging, overwhelming, and all-consuming caring for an older adult can be. She also knows how important support is — especially in the form of practical solutions, valuable resources, and self-care tips.
Hai, I’m doing the master thesis about the senior citizen join the church choir. Thank for the information. It’s helping me a lot. Thanks and GOD bless!
I’m so glad we could help in your research! I love that you’re focusing on older adults who sing — it’s such an uplifting activity. Best, Connie
All of this is very true but you can’t just put on music and then let them be. You have to have specialized training to fully benefit the person and their health. A music therapist would be perfect for this task. Music therapists know all about the healing power of music and they know what to do when the music triggers such a response. In general, I love this article! I just wanted to further inform those who may not know about the music therapy field. Keep on advocating for the healing powers of music!
Hi Gregory, thank you! I’m so glad you found the article helpful. Thank you for sharing how music therapists can help seniors benefit from music even more. However, there’s also a lot to be said for simply sitting and enjoying music together. We don’t have to be experts to put on some tunes for our loved ones, listen to great songs, and reminisce with them when the music brings back fond memories. That’s one of the best things about music — it’s universal and can be enjoyed by everyone from birth to end-of-life.