What are the benefits of singing? Singing is good for the body and mind as it helps manage stress, enhances mood, strengthens immunity and the lungs, enhances memory and concentration, promotes a sense of belongingness, improves sleep and speech, and increases pain tolerance.
Believe it or not, singing has a multitude of benefits. Apart from boosting your confidence and making you feel better about yourself, there are actually benefits that are based on scientific facts. It affects our mind, body, and our overall mood. Do you love to sing? You’ll love it even more once you learn how great it can be for you!
12 Benefits of Singing
It Lifts Your Mood
Did you know that singing is considered an aerobic activity? Just like a normal exercise routine, it improves circulation by introducing more oxygen into our blood. It also improves your mood the same way that sex and chocolates can as singing releases the same feel-good chemical. So the next time you’re feeling blah, go and sing your heart out until you feel a lot better!
It’s a Great Stress Reliever
Singing is a form of music, and making music in any form lowers our stress level. According to a study, it decreases the levels of cortisol, known as the stress hormone that flows through our bloodstreams. That means singing is a great natural anti-depressant!
But singing doesn’t work for all scenarios, though. You can’t just break out into a song while riding the subway on your way to a job interview, right? In a 2015 study, it was concluded that cortisol levels don’t necessarily go down if you’re not in a comfortable setting like a public performance. If you’re a bit anxious, best to have concerts at home for now.
It Helps Strengthen Immune Response
Immunoglobulin is an antibody that acts as a “first line of defense” for our bodies. And do you know what helps promote this antibody? Bingo! Singing!
A study has proven that singing improves the release of immunoglobulin; and when this happens, you become sturdier against sickness. It’s quite timely too, right? With variants of the pandemic all over, a stronger immune system will definitely be an advantage; literally singing the blues (flu’s) away!
Improves Lung Function
Now, more than ever, many people have become conscious about their lung health. Swimming is a great activity to strengthen the lungs. We all don’t always have a pool at the ready, but you can start strengthening your lungs by singing!
Professional singers normally have a larger lung vital capacity or the ability to take in air compared to a normal person. It means that they can sing a note much longer and with more power. The average choir singer has 3.12 liters while the average human has 2.73 liters of VC. If you’ve ever wondered how singers can sing a note for so long without taking a break, it’s mostly because of practice and technique.
Improves Speaking Abilities
As singing is relatively similar to speaking, it can help improve our speech too! If you’ve ever heard a singer sing a song in a different language, most times you’d speculate that they were fluent; but in some cases, it’s repetition. For each time that they sing that foreign language song, their pronunciation improves, thus making them sound so natural in that language!
Not only that, there is a study that shows singing can be an effective tool to treat various speech disorders. Stuttering, autism, and Parkinson’s disease are all conditions that may benefit from singing. Talk about having fun while doing a therapeutic activity! By using this method, it may become a form of therapy that will hope to improve not only their speech but their overall way of life.
Improves Mental Alertness, Memory, and Concentration
People who play physically intense games like basketball need quick reflexes. And as we know, singing can be considered an exercise in itself since it promotes blood circulation. If your blood is circulating efficiently, it allows your brain more oxygen, and with more oxygen comes mental alertness. Hence, your concentration and memory will also improve!
The effects are so helpful that it’s even used to help those who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s. The “Alzheimer’s Society” established “Singing for the Brain”, where participants use singing and vocal exercises to help promote brain activity.
It Helps with Sleep and Snoring
If you or anyone in your family snores loudly, tell them to sing more. No kidding!
Singing, according to a study in 2008, may be able to change the way people breathe even when they sleep. As you consistently sing, you also train your airways. As oxygen is essential to improve your singing, your repetitive practice may benefit the respiratory muscles that are the main culprits for snoring, namely the muscles around your throat and nose. No more sleepless nights!
Increases Tolerance to Pain
A surprising benefit to singing is the increased ability to tolerate pain. If you’ve ever heard of a mosh pit, then you’d know that some concerts can be painful, literally.
A study suggests that singing, drumming, and dancing in a group can increase your pain threshold. This explains why mosh pits, even though incredibly wild and physical that leaves concert-goers bloodied and bruised, are somewhat enjoyable to these patrons.
Promotes Camaraderie
Singing can be a hobby, and finding people with common interests is always a treat. A glee club or any singing group promotes this connection and gives you a high sense of validation and belongingness.
This is apparent in a study where children who participated in collective singing had a stronger sense of belonging and social well-being. It promotes working in groups and can provide a jump start to one’s acceptance of self and social inclusion.
Helps Ease Grief
Music has long been used by many as a way of coping with sorrow. Wiz Khalifa’s single See You Again is a testament to how songs or singing can help us overcome grief. The message of the song is clear that even if someone has left our lives, we’ll see them down the road.
A study from 2019 supports this theory. The study concluded that singing in a choir weekly increased the well-being of the participants and lessened depression due to mutual support. It also improved the mental health of those involved during a 12-week period.
Promotes Appreciation of the Art
Singing is an art. While we see performers belt out the highest of tones effortlessly, most of us don’t understand the hardships and sacrifice needed to attain this level of skill. Not until we subject ourselves to the art.
Taking singing lessons would be a start, and rightfully so. Working your way up from a beginner’s level, you’ll realize that it’s not as easy as they make it out to be. If anything, it will give you a different perspective of singers in general, a higher form of respect for their art.
Here’s a video coverig a lot of the benefits of singing:
Express Yourself! Sing!
In conclusion, singing is fun. It’s a form of self-expression that soars above others due to its performance level compared to other art forms. It demands presence and charm but at the end of it, it’s about how you feel while you do it.
Feeling happy? Sing! Feeling sad? Sing!
Feeling stressed, demotivated, tired, lazy? Sing!
The benefits are only part of why you should enjoy this form of performance art; but it sure doesn’t hurt that there are a lot of benefits, too! Now, go ahead and sing like there’s no tomorrow!