Music for Seniors’ Relaxation
Music can provide for seniors’ relaxation with soothing and comforting effects. Whether it moves someone to sing along, to move about, or to reflect and remember, music has a power that little else may possess.
Recent studies show that listening to music helps patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s to become more responsive and communicative. It may also calm frustration, impatience, and tempers. It can influence the moods of everyone who hears. Music enhances emotional and psychological well-being.
Learn to Listen
How can a caregiver find music for seniors’ relaxation while at home?
First, consider music for seniors’ that the loved one enjoys and which has a lifelong connection for him or her. Choose familiar music for seniors’ relaxation which can be associated with happy memories for the listener. Cheerful sing-along songs from childhood are good choices. Often, the words and tunes of hymns, anthems, and holiday songs can be re-discovered in one’s long-term memory. Music therapists say that listening to popular songs from a person’s youth, ages 18 to 25, may best stir memories and relaxation.
Marches and music with a strong beat may be what is needed to bring out reactions like toe-tapping, clapping, laughter and movement.
Classical music, whether it is played by piano, violin, guitar, or by complete orchestras is good music for seniors’, for it’s known to be very relaxing.
Find an uninterrupted source of the kind of music you want to play, so that commercials will not be distracting. Use headphones to help the hearing impaired, hearing aid users, or those who may be distracted by other things going on in the room. Classical radio stations generally have hours that are dedicated to uninterrupted orchestral symphonies. Or, dig out those old record albums and that old record player and listen to those old favorites again.
Read more about Recreational Listening for Seniors
Sources of Free Music
Classical music radio stations across the nation play uninterrupted masterworks by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and others. See the national map of cities where there are classical music radio stations. https://classicalmusicrising.org/stations/
YouTube has many free musical performances of any type of music imaginable, from country to classical. Google YouTube “Classical Music for Relaxation,” for example.
For Alzheimer’s Patients
The Alzheimer’s Association’s website has wonderful music tracks, Music Moments, available free. Performed by famous musicians and vocalists, each track is paired with behind-the-scenes videos and personal stories connected to the songs they selected. Listen to the “Music Moments” album at the website or streaming platform.
In Massachusetts, the Alzheimer’s Music Project provides a compact, mp3 player, and a personalized music playlist of their favorite songs and artists to patients with dementia-related illnesses. Working with families and caregivers to create music playlists, the project assists the patients to improve cognition and communication through music. Donations, grants and the support of foundations help The Alzheimer’s Music Project to continue. To participate, go to this site.
So, caregivers, tune in to music for seniors’ relaxation, and you and your loved ones can be touched by its power to calm, comfort, and give joy.
Stay safe and healthy at home!
