When times get tough, you sometimes need a good cry — whether that’s being curled up on the couch watching a sappy rom-com or in the shower singing to the shampoo bottle or stuck in traffic belting out your favorite sad song.
Contrary to what some might think, blaring melancholy tunes might be good for you. According to Psychology Today, sad music can regulate mood, bring forth nostalgic memories and activates prolactin, a hormone associated with crying and helping to curb grief.
Tara Venkatesan, PhD, a cognitive scientist at Oxford University and an operatic soprano, told Health that sad music evokes a sense of “connection, not necessarily the experience of sadness itself, which is what makes listening to sad music really great.”
“Often, sad songs have slower tempos and lower pitches than other types of music,” Carolina Estevez, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at Crestone Wellness, told Everyday Health. “This type of sound can help lower blood pressure and heart rate, relieve muscle tension, and lower cortisol levels.”
The British Academy of Sound Therapy conducted a study with more than 7,000 participants. During the Music is Medicine study, they found that music took 13 minutes to “release sadness” and only 9 minutes to make the participants happy.
“Our test subjects reported positive benefits including decreased muscle tension, negative thoughts disappearing, feeling peaceful and contented and being able to sleep better,” the study wrote.
Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, here are a few sad playlists from pop to R&B and country to help boost your mood.
If listening to sad music helps you, then consider checking out music therapy, a practice that uses various music genres to stimulate emotional release. According to Medical News Today, music therapy can improve self-esteem, decrease anxiety, increase motivation, bring successful and safe emotional release, increase verbalization, and build stronger connections with other people.
Sadness is a basic human emotion that shouldn’t be avoided or suppressed. So, the next time your down and out, sing the blues and let your worries fade away with each track.
About the Author
