Why Playing Music Out Loud Leads To More Sex And Happier Relationships
If you prefer to listen to your music through the comfort of your headphones, then you may want to take them off your head for a minute and read this. A recent report from Sonos, the smart speaker system, has discovered just how much of a positive impact playing music out loud can have not only on ourselves, but also on those around us.
The Music Makes It Home study was conducted with around 30,000 participants from eight countries around the world. It was designed to better understand how music being played throughout the home could change the way we connect with each other.
To conduct the survey, Sonos ran an experiment using iPhones, Apple Watches, iBeacons and motion-activated cameras to collect the thriving data they found. Some participants were even asked to log daily video journals to offer an insight into their home lives.
Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, a neuroscientist and author of the bestselling book, "This Is Your Brain On Music," said,
The truth is, people may be sharing a home, but they aren't sharing much else. Music may be able to change that by bringing everyone back together.
Straight away, the results from the study were able to show that people who listened to music out loud were spending more time with their household members than those who weren't: three hours and 13 minutes per week extra, to be precise. There were also some other pretty eye-opening facts about our home lives revealed in the report.
Listening to music out loud will help you with all of the following:
1. You'll have more sex.
Apparently, homes full of music are full of romance. The report found that people who listened to music out loud with their partners were having 67 percent more sex than those who weren't. There was also almost a quarter of people who said they were prepared to totally give up sex if there was no music.
Levitin said,
We find that people who listen to music out loud together report that their relationships are stronger. They spend more time with loved ones. They spend more time hugging.
US participants reported having twice as much sex with music than without.
2. You'll be happier.
Yep, the study shows those who listen to music out loud lead much happier lifestyles than those who don't. The research found that after introducing music into the home, 43 percent of participants reported feeing extremely loved, which was a whopping 87 percent increase as compared to before.
3. You'll get cooking.
If you're looking for a reason why you don't do enough cooking at home, maybe you can consider blaming the lack of music to help set the tone. Fifty percent of the participants in the survey found cooking was much easier while listening to music.
One of the participants, a 12-year old boy, said it best when he explained why music makes for a livelier meal:
It's like, 'Oh man, do you like this song? It's really good. I heard that this person is releasing a new album.' It helps start conversations.
4. You'll get things done.
Now, there is research saying that listening to music actually helps you get your sh*t together. The study said that 83 percent of the participants found that listening to music while doing mundane household chores was much easier than trying to get stuff done in silence.
5. You'll get healthier.
The results also showed that people were much more active during the week when music had such a massive impact on their lives. The number of steps participants were taking increased by 2 percent, and the number of calories being burnt went up by 3 percent.
So, just why exactly does music have so much of an impact on our daily lives?
Levitin says:
Music has deep evolutionary roots, and now that we have basically all of the songs ever recorded available on demand, today's technology allows us to craft the soundtrack of our day. We can choose one kind of music to get out of bed in the morning, and another kind of music to motivate us through our workouts or get chores done.
So, take out your earphones...
... Strut into your front room...
... And turn on some hot beats and party.
