Recent research shows that listening to music improves our health in surprising ways. If we take a music lesson or two, that musical training can help raise our IQs and even keep us sharp in old age.
Music Reduces Pain
As Bob Marely once put it: "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain." Research at Drexel University found that music reduced pain more than standard treatments in cancer patients. Other research showed that music can ease pain in patients.
Music Keeps Your Brain Healthy in Old Age
A study with healthy older adults found that those with ten or more years of musical experience scored higher on cognitive (认知的) tests than musicians with one to nine years of musical study. "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create the connections in the brain that could make up for cognitive decreases as we get older," said lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy.
A study showed that students who listened to relaxing classical music for 45 minutes before turning in slept much better than students who listened to an audio book or did nothing different from their normal routine. If you're having trouble sleeping, try listening to a little Mozart before bedtime.
Music Raises IQ and Academic Performance
In one study, 6-year-olds who took keyboard or singing lessons in small groups for 36 weeks had large increases in IQ and standardized educational test results than children who took either drama lessons or no lessons. To help children achieve academic excellence, encourage them to take music lessons.
A. Here are some amazing benefits of music.
B. Therefore, standard treatments are strongly advised by doctors.
C. Music Helps You Sleep Better
D. Music Relaxes People
E. The non-musicians scored the lowest.
F. Research shows that learning music predicts higher scores in children.
G. But the selection needed to be either classical pieces or their choices.
