The benefits of music

Music is a creative outlet that has the power to bring people together and improve health and wellbeing. If you have worked in the care sector you may have already noticed the amazing benefits of listening to music.

To celebrate World Music Day, we are going to take a closer look at the benefits of music in everyday life and particularly for those living with dementia.

Music is accessible to everyone at every age and studies have found that music even has a valuable role in the quality of life and reduction of loneliness. It provides a sense of companionship, which can have positive effects on your mood and self-esteem. It can stimulate happy emotions and memories – almost everyone will always remember the song played as the first dance at their wedding.

Music and Dementia

Musical outlets provide a non-medical approach to helping manage and contain symptoms of dementia. The flexibility of music allows different levels of participation and offers a personal experience for listeners as songs can bring back memories and be interactive even as cognitive functions deteriorate.

Beckie Morley, the founder of Musical Moments, BA Hons in Music with a specialism in community music and dementia and PGCE in Early Music Education, said: “Music is particularly beneficial for those living with dementia; the ‘musical memory’ is the strongest memory retained by the human brain so it makes a lot of sense to use music as often as possible.”

At Four Seasons Health Care Group, we understand the importance of music in helping our resident’s health and well-being, especially those living with dementia. Therefore, we have carefully designed our activities programme to encourage interaction and communication using music. Residents can take part in group sing-along sessions, dance lessons or relax in the communal room with light music in the background to help encourage positive memories.

We have also patterned with DanceSing to bring live music sessions to our homes through live stream. This allows our residents to enjoy interacting with others around them whilst also encouraging light exercise of the mind and body.

This World Music Day put on your favourite song and have a boogie – after all, it’s good for your health!