The Science Of Sounds

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We Think You Might Like The Sound Of This…

We’ve written before about the benefits of mindfulness meditation, and how to do it.

We also reviewed a great book on a related topic:

This is Your Brain On Music – by Dr. Daniel Levitin

(yes, that’s the same neuroscientist that we featured as an expert talking about The Five Keys of Aging Healthily)

But what happens when we combine the two?

Mantra meditation & music

Most scientific studies that have been undertaken with regard to meditation tend to focus on mindfulness meditation. It’s easy, effective, and (which makes a difference when it comes to publication bias) is a very safe bet when it comes to funding.

However, today we’re going to look at mantra meditation, which has a lot in common, neurologically speaking, with music. Indeed, when the two were compared separately in a randomized control trial:

❝Daily mantra meditation or classical music listening may be beneficial for cognitive outcomes and quality of life of breast cancer survivors with cancer-related cognitive impairment.

The cognitive benefits appear to be sustained beyond the initial intervention period.❞

~ Dr. Ashley Henneghan et al.

Read in full: Sustained Effects of Mantra Meditation Compared to Music Listening on Neurocognitive Outcomes of Breast Cancer Survivors: A Brief Report of a Randomized Control Trial

One possible reason for some of the similar benefits is the vagus nerve—whether intoning a mantra, or humming along to music, the vibrations can stimulate the vagus nerve, which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in body-wide relaxation:

The Vagus Nerve (And How You Can Make Use Of It)

How effective is mantra meditation?

According to a large recent narrative review, it depends on your goal:

❝Based on the studies in the four important areas presented, there is no doubt of a strong connection between mantra meditation and human health.

Strong evidence has been found that practicing mantra meditation is effective in relieving stress and in coping with hypertension.

For the other two areas: anxiety and immunity, the evidence is inconclusive or not strong enough to firmly support the claim that the mantra meditation can be used to reduce anxiety or to improve immunity. ❞

~ Dr. Dr. Ampere Tseng

Read in full: Scientific Evidence of Health Benefits by Practicing Mantra Meditation: Narrative Review

this is a very interesting read if you do have the time!

How do I practice mantra meditation?

The definition is broad, but the critical criteria are:

  1. You meditate
  2. …using a mantra

Lest that seem flippant: those really are the two key points!

Meditation comes in various forms, and mantra meditation is a form of focussed meditation. While some focussed meditation forms may use a candle or some other focal point, in mantra meditation, the mantra itself provides the focus.

You may be wondering: what should the mantra be?

Classic and well-tested mantras include such simple things as the monosyllabic Sanskrit “Om” or “Ham”. We’re a health science newsletter, so we’ll leave esoteric meanings to other publications as they are beyond our scope, but we will say that these result, most naturally, in the humming sound that we mentioned earlier stimulates the vagus nerve.

But that’s not the only way. Practitioners of religions that have repetitive prayer systems (e.g. anything that uses prayer beads, for example) also provide the basis of focused meditation, using a mantra (in this case, usually a very short oft-repeated prayer phrase).

How long is needed for benefits?

Most studies into mantra meditation have used timed sessions of 15–30 minutes, with 20 minutes being a commonly-used session length, once per day. However…

  • Vagus nerve benefits should appear a lot more quickly than that (under 5 minutes) in the case of mantras that cause that vibration we mentioned.
  • Repetitive spoken prayers (or similar repeated short phrases, for the irreligious) will generally effect relaxation in whatever period of time it takes for your brain to be fully focused on what you are doing now, instead of what you were thinking about before. If using counting beads, then you probably already know what number works for you.

(again, as a health science publication, we cannot comment on any otherworldly benefits, but the worldly benefits seem reason enough to consider these practices for their potential therapeutic effects)

10almonds tip: for any meditative practice that you want to take approximately a given period of time, we recommend investing in a nice sand timer like this one, as this will not result in a jarring alarm going off!

Like to jazz things up a little?

Enjoy: Meditation That You’ll Actually Enjoy ← Meditation games!

Prefer to keep things to the basics?

Enjoy: No Frills, Evidence-Based Mindfulness ← The simplest scientific approach

Take care!

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  • The Snooze-Button Controversy

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    To Snooze Or Not To Snooze? (Science Has Answers)

    This is Dr. Jennifer Kanaan. She’s a medical doctor with a focus on pulmonary critical care, sleep disorders, and sleep medicine.

    What does she want to tell us?

    She wants us to be wary of the many news articles that have jumped on a certain recent sleep study, such as:

    For the curious, here is the paper itself, by Dr. Tina Sundelin et al. It’s actually two studies, by the way, but one paper:

    Is snoozing losing? Why intermittent morning alarms are used and how they affect sleep, cognition, cortisol, and mood

    The authors of this study concluded:

    ❝There were no clear effects of snoozing on the cortisol awakening response, morning sleepiness, mood, or overnight sleep architecture.

    A brief snooze period may thus help alleviate sleep inertia, without substantially disturbing sleep, for late chronotypes and those with morning drowsiness.❞

    Notably, people tend to snooze because an alarm clock will, if not “smart” about it, wake us up mid sleep-cycle more often than not, and that will produce a short “sleep hangover”. By snoozing, we are basically re-rolling the dice on being woken up between sleep cycles, and thus feeling more refreshed.

    What’s Dr. Kanaan’s counterpoint?

    Dr. Kanaan says:

    ❝If you’re coming in and out of sleep for 30 minutes, after the alarm goes off the first time, you’re costing yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted, quality, restorative sleep. This study doesn’t change that fact.❞

    She advises that rather than snoozing, we should prioritize getting good sleep in the first place, and once we do wake up, mid sleep-cycle or not, get sunlight. That way, our brain will start promptly scrubbing melatonin and producing the appropriate wakefulness hormones instead. That means serotonin, and also a spike of cortisol.

    Remember: cortisol is only bad when it’s chronically elevated. It’s fine, and even beneficial, to have a short spike of cortisol. We make it for a reason!

    If you’d like to hear more from Dr. Kanaan, you might like this interview with her at the University of Connecticut:

    You Snooze, You (Still) Lose: health sleep disorders specialist warns of misleading takeaway from study suggesting snooze button benefits

    Want the best of both worlds?

    A great option to avoid getting woken in the middle of a sleep cycle, and also not needing to hit snooze, is a sunrise alarm clock. Specifics of these devices vary, but for example, the kind this writer has starts gently glowing an hour before the set alarm time,and gradually gets brighter and lighter over the course of the hour.

    We don’t sell them, but here’s an example sunrise alarm clock on Amazon, for your convenience

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  • Things Many People Forget When It Comes To Hydration

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Good hydration is about more than just “drink lots of water”, and in fact it’s quite possible for a person to drink too much water, and at the same time, be dehydrated. Here’s how and why and what to do about it:

    Water, water, everywhere

    Factors that people forget:

    • Electrolyte balance: without it, we can technically have lots of water while either retaining it (in the case of too high salt levels) or peeing it out (in the case of too low salt levels), neither of which are as helpful as getting it right and actually being able to use the water.
    • Gastrointestinal health: conditions like IBS, Crohn’s, or celiac disease can impair water and nutrient absorption, affecting hydration
    • Genetic factors: some people simply have a predisposition to need more or less water for proper hydration
    • Dietary factors: high salt, caffeine, and alcohol intake (amongst other diuretics) can increase water loss, while water-rich foods (assuming they aren’t also diuretics) increase hydration.

    Strategies to do better:

    • Drink small amounts of water consistently throughout the day rather than large quantities at once—healthy kidneys can process about 1 liter (about 1 quart) of water per hour, so drinking more than that will not help, no matter how dehydrated you are when you start. If your kidneys aren’t in peak health, the amount processable per hour will be lower for you.
    • Increase fiber intake (e.g., fruit and vegetables) to retain water in the intestines and improve hydration
    • Consume water-rich foods (e.g., watermelon, cucumbers, grapes) to enhance overall hydration and support cellular function (the body can use this a lot more efficiently than if you just drink water).
    • Counteract the diuretic effects of caffeine and alcohol by drinking an additional 12 oz of water for every 8 oz of these beverages. Best yet, don’t drink alcohol and keep caffeine to a low level (or quit entirely, if you prefer, but for most people that’s not necessary).
    • If you are sweating (be it because of weather, exercise, or any other reasons), include electrolyte fluids to improve cellular hydration, as they contain essential minerals like magnesium, potassium, and in moderation yes even sodium which you will have lost in your sweat too, supporting fluid regulation.

    For more details on all of these, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Senior Meetup Groups Combating Loneliness

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    “I would like to read more on loneliness, meetup group’s for seniors. Thank you”

    Well, 10almonds is an international newsletter, so it’s hard for us to advise about (necessarily: local) meetup groups!

    But a very popular resource for connecting to your local community is Nextdoor, which operates throughout the US, Canada, Australia, and large parts of Europe including the UK.

    In their own words:

    Get the most out of your neighborhood with Nextdoor

    It’s where communities come together to greet newcomers, exchange recommendations, and read the latest local news. Where neighbors support local businesses and get updates from public agencies. Where neighbors borrow tools and sell couches. It’s how to get the most out of everything nearby. Welcome, neighbor.

    Curious? Click here to check it out and see if it’s of interest to you

    Share This Post

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  • How To Keep Your Mind From Wandering

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Whether your mind keeps wandering more as you get older, or you’re a young student whose super-active brain is more suited to TikTok than your assigned reading, sustained singular focus can be a challenge for everyone—and yet (alas!) it remains a required skill for so much in life.

    Today’s edition of 10Almonds presents a nifty trick to get yourself through those tasks! We’ll also be taking some time to reply to your questions and comments, in our weekly interactive Q&A.

    First of all though, we’ve a promise to make good on, so…

    How To Stay On The Ball (Or The Tomato?) The Easy Way

    For most of us, we face three main problems when it comes to tackling our to-dos:

    1. Where to start?
    2. The task seems intimidating in its size
    3. We get distracted and/or run out of energy

    If you’re really not sure where to start, we recommended a powerful tool in last Friday’s newsletter!

    For the rest, we love the Pomodoro Technique:

    1. Set a timer for 25 minutes, and begin your task.
    2. Keep going until the timer is done! No other tasks, just focus.
    3. Take a 5-minute break.
    4. Repeat

    This approach has three clear benefits:

    1. No matter the size of the task, you are only committing to 25 minutes—everything is much less overwhelming when there’s an end in sight!
    2. Being only 25 minutes means we are much more likely to stay on track; it’s easier to defer other activities if we know that there will be a 5-minute break for that soon.
    3. Even without other tasks to distract us, it can be difficult to sustain attention for long periods; making it only 25 minutes at a time allows us to approach it with a (relatively!) fresh mind.

    Have you heard that a human brain can sustain attention for only about 40 minutes before focus starts to decline rapidly?

    While that’s been a popular rationale for school classroom lesson durations (and perhaps coincidentally ties in with Zoom’s 40-minute limit for free meetings), the truth is that focus starts dropping immediately, to the point that one-minute attention tests are considered sufficient to measure the ability to focus.

    So a 25-minute Pomodoro is a more than fair compromise!

    Why’s it called the “Pomodoro” technique?

    And why is the 25-minute timed work period called a Pomodoro?

    It’s because back in the 80s, university student Francesco Cirillo was struggling to focus and made a deal with himself to focus just for a short burst at a time—and he used a (now “retro” style) kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato, or “pomodoro”, in Italian.

    If you don’t have a penchant for kitsch kitchenware, you can use this free, simple Online Pomodoro Timer!

    (no registration/login/download necessary; it’s all right there on the web page)

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Comfortable with Uncertainty – by Pema Chödrön

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    This book is exactly what the subtitle claims it to be: 108 teachings on cultivating fearlessness and compassion. They are short extracts, entire of themselves, taken from Chödrön’s wider work and arranged to offer her insights and advices on this one topic, in one place.

    It is worth noting, by the way, that the author is a Buddhist nun, and as such, the principles and practices are Buddhist in origin. If that’s a problem for you, then this book will not be for you. It does not, however, require that the reader be Buddhist to benefit, simply that one has a will to be calm in the face of chaos, and yet not indifferent—rather, to take on the challenges of life with a whole heart.

    And about that compassion? This is about alleviating suffering; your own, and the suffering in the world as a whole, increasingly uncertain as this world is. And being brave enough to do that, in a world that is not always gentle.

    The style is idiosyncratic, and you will likely love it or hate it. If you love it, then you will find this book at once both soothing and empowering; if not, you will put the book down and pick up a book on CBT or something instead.

    Bottom line: this book absolutely does deliver on its title/subtitle promises—provided you, dear reader, internalize it and practise it.

    Click here to check out Comfortable with Uncertainty, and get comfortable with uncertainty!

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  • ‘Noisy’ autistic brains seem better at certain tasks. Here’s why neuroaffirmative research matters

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Pratik Raul, University of Canberra; Jeroen van Boxtel, University of Canberra, and Jovana Acevska, University of Canberra

    Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference associated with specific experiences and characteristics.

    For decades, autism research has focused on behavioural, cognitive, social and communication difficulties. These studies highlighted how autistic people face issues with everyday tasks that allistic (meaning non-autistic) people do not. Some difficulties may include recognising emotions or social cues.

    But some research, including our own study, has explored specific advantages in autism. Studies have shown that in some cognitive tasks, autistic people perform better than allistic people. Autistic people may have greater success in identifying a simple shape embedded within a more complex design, arranging blocks of different shapes and colours, or spotting an object within a cluttered visual environment (similar to Where’s Wally?). Such enhanced performance has been recorded in babies as young as nine months who show emerging signs of autism.

    How and why do autistic individuals do so well on these tasks? The answer may be surprising: more “neural noise”.

    What is neural noise?

    Generally, when you think of noise, you probably think of auditory noise, the ups and downs in the amplitude of sound frequencies we hear.

    A similar thing happens in the brain with random fluctuations in neural activity. This is called neural noise.

    This noise is always present, and comes on top of any brain activity caused by things we see, hear, smell and touch. This means that in the brain, an identical stimulus that is presented multiple times won’t cause exactly the same activity. Sometimes the brain is more active, sometimes less. In fact, even the response to a single stimulus or event will fluctuate continuously.

    Neural noise in autism

    There are many sources of neural noise in the brain. These include how the neurons become excited and calm again, changes in attention and arousal levels, and biochemical processes at the cellular level, among others. An allistic brain has mechanisms to manage and use this noise. For instance, cells in the hippocampus (the brain’s memory system) can make use of neural noise to enhance memory encoding and recall.

    Evidence for high neural noise in autism can be seen in electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, where increased levels of neural fluctuations were observed in autistic children. This means their neural activity is less predictable, showing a wider range of activity (higher ups and downs) in response to the same stimulus.

    In simple terms, if we imagine the EEG responses like a sound wave, we would expect to see small ups and downs (amplitude) in allistic brains each time they encounter a stimulus. But autistic brains seem to show bigger ups and downs, demonstrating greater amplitude of neural noise.

    Many studies have linked this noisy autistic brain with cognitive, social and behavioural difficulties.

    But could noise be a bonus?

    The diagnosis of autism has a long clinical history. A shift from the medical to a more social model has also seen advocacy for it to be reframed as a difference, rather than a disorder or deficit. This change has also entered autism research. Neuroaffirming research can examine the uniqueness and strengths of neurodivergence.

    Psychology and perception researcher David Simmons and colleagues at the University of Glasgow were the first to suggest that while high neural noise is generally a disadvantage in autism, it can sometimes provide benefits due to a phenomenon called stochastic resonance. This is where optimal amounts of noise can enhance performance. In line with this theory, high neural noise in the autistic brain might enhance performance for some cognitive tasks.

    Our 2023 research explores this idea. We recruited participants from the general population and investigated their performance on letter-detection tasks. At the same time, we measured their level of autistic traits.

    We performed two letter-detection experiments (one in a lab and one online) where participants had to identify a letter when displayed among background visual static of various intensities.

    By using the static, we added additional visual noise to the neural noise already present in our participants’ brains. We hypothesised the visual noise would push participants with low internal brain noise (or low autistic traits) to perform better (as suggested by previous research on stochastic resonance). The more interesting prediction was that noise would not help individuals who already had a lot of brain noise (that is, those with high autistic traits), because their own neural noise already ensured optimal performance.

    Indeed, one of our experiments showed people with high neural noise (high autistic traits) did not benefit from additional noise. Moreover, they showed superior performance (greater accuracy) relative to people with low neural noise when the added visual static was low. This suggests their own neural noise already caused a natural stochastic resonance effect, resulting in better performance.

    It is important to note we did not include clinically diagnosed autistic participants, but overall, we showed the theory of enhanced performance due to stochastic resonance in autism has merits.

    Why this is important?

    Autistic people face ignorance, prejudice and discrimination that can harm wellbeing. Poor mental and physical health, reduced social connections and increased “camouflaging” of autistic traits are some of the negative impacts that autistic people face.

    So, research underlining and investigating the strengths inherent in autism can help reduce stigma, allow autistic people to be themselves and acknowledge autistic people do not require “fixing”.

    The autistic brain is different. It comes with limitations, but it also has its strengths.

    Pratik Raul, PhD candidiate, University of Canberra; Jeroen van Boxtel, Associate professor, University of Canberra, and Jovana Acevska, Honours Graduate Student, University of Canberra

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    The Conversation

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