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From boosting the brain to reducing pain, joining others in song can bring some wide-ranging benefits.
It's that time of year when the air starts to tinkle with angelic voices – or ring with the occasional lusty hymn – as carol singers spread their own indomitable brand of festive joy. All that harking and heralding. It's joyful and triumphant.
But these bands of tinsel-draped singers may be on to something. Whether they realise it or not as they fill shopping centres, train stations, nursing homes and the street outside your front door with jubilant song, they are also giving their own health a boost.
From the brain to the heart, singing has been found to bring a wide range of benefits to those who do it, particularly if they do it in groups. It can draw people closer together, prime our bodies to fight off disease and even suppress pain. So might it be worth raising your own voice in good cheer?
"Singing is a cognitive, physical, emotional and social act," says Alex Street, a researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research who studies how music can be used to help children and adults recover from brain injuries.
Psychologists have long marvelled at how people who sing together can develop a powerful sense of social cohesion, with even among the most reluctant of vocalists becoming united in song. Research has shown that complete strangers can forge unusually close bonds after singing together for an hour.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251128-how-singing-can-improve-your-health
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Why singing is surprisingly good for your health