Why singing might be the key to mental wellbeing

Of course, some forms of singing are more stressful than others. It’s the same for songbirds: when my garden blackbird displays his riffs in order to attract a mate, or scats away to protect his nest from the local cat, he is probably having something like those nerve-racking early experiences of mine. After all, in his case it really is a matter of survival: his noisy vocals risk him being spotted and plucked off his perch by a visiting raptor.

“Modern science can produce all sorts of evidence that singing together… is amazingly good for us.”

In contrast, the same singer joining a flock of birds in a tree, sharing tunes in what biologists term “gregarious singing”, feels calm and safe. When people who sing in choirs are tested for salivary cortisol, they show a significant reduction at the end of their sessions. Those whose lives are already more stressful than the average – for example, due to mental health problems or serious illness – show the biggest drop.

But let’s not stop there. Modern science can produce all sorts of evidence that singing together, or for that matter singing along to a favourite vocalist on the car stereo system, is amazingly good for us. For example, in tandem with the lowered stress hormones comes an increase in feel-good ones, from serotonin to oxytocin, endorphins to endocannabinoids.

If I had to choose just one of these, I would have to say the love hormone, oxytocin. It is present as we sing to our babies, and also in children as old as 11 hearing familiar songs that make them feel bonded to their parents. It is there as you croon along to your favourite romantic ballad, or join with a load of mates in a karaoke club.

Behavioural psychologists have discovered that people who sing together feel a sense of allegiance much faster than if they are gathering to practise a craft, or talk about books, or dance. Singing proves to be the best icebreaker and comes with the added bonus that it makes people feel at home with one another even on a gigantic scale, say in a stadium or a cathedral. That’s why so much singing goes on in political movements and religions, in corporations as well as in educational establishments.

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The idea of writing a book about such things didn’t occur to me in a karaoke club or a church, or even while nursing my children. It happened in an environment where people really struggle to find feel-good factors, where everyday life is a real trial and visiting a bar a forgotten luxury.

For those with dementia and their carers, it’s a good day if they can get it together to drive to a shabby local village hall or the visitors’ room in an overheated care home.

It was there that I picked up my guitar and asked dementia sufferers to join me in folk songs and spirituals, old pop songs and music-hall numbers I remembered from my childhood. I was richly rewarded. People who had lost so much of the understanding and ability they’d acquired over a lifetime didn’t have time to get worried about whether they were special or talented. They were living in the moment, grasping at any feel-good factor that came their way. And boy, did they feel it. In the same way a small child responds to the music in a human voice, so does a person with dementia.

But they also have fragments of memory to call on, brought together by the framework of a tune. Those who have lost the power of speech start to replicate the lyrics to a popular song; sometimes it triggers the word-making part of the brain to such a degree that they continue chattering away even when the song has ended.

For others, it is a feeling of confidence that is switched back on by the singing: they regain the ability to perform some everyday skill like putting their coat on, or making a cup of tea, or naming a loved one. The explanation seems to be in the overall brain stimulus going on: with so many simultaneous synaptic connections, singing can stimulate new pathways even as old ones are being destroyed.

“Singing proves to be the best icebreaker and comes with the added bonus that it makes people feel at home with one another even on a gigantic scale.”

I went in search of the science around why singing was so beneficial for people with dementia. And after a while I realised that the miracles I was witnessing were just an exaggerated version of what we all experience, but distilled by their condition.

Their lack of inhibition combined with their profound need made it very evident how plastic and adaptable the human brain is when stimulated by singing, how versatile it becomes when our musical skills are combined with our linguistic ones, and how much singing satisfies our need to connect with one another.

Most of all, these people affirmed for me that singing is a gift granted to every human being, connected to every part of our body, mind and spirit. It is an ability we can call on, even when other physical and mental attributes are falling away, and is something to be cherished our whole life.

Why We Sing (Allen & Unwin) by Julia Hollander is out now.

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