I have been taking singing lessons for the past two years, not because I have a desire to perform on a stage, but rather because I have always found joy in music. I have had many conversations with other people, musicians and non-musicians, about how therapeutic it feels to attend my voice lesson every week. Intuitively, I think it makes sense that the kind of flow state you can reach while singing would be cathartic in some way; however, since starting this course, I have been wondering if there is a physiological basis to why singing induces a feeling of relaxation, in contrast to how stress is generated in the body.
In my search, I came across a few interesting papers, but I wanted to highlight a short study by Fancourt, Aufegger, & Williamon (2015). The researchers examined the ratio of cortisol and cortisone in singers immediately before and after performing over two nights. The first night, the singers were deliberately put in a low-stress environment (ex. Singing without an audience). The second night, the singers were put in a high-stress environment (ex. Singing in front of a live audience), directed by the same conductor at the same time and venue as the previous night. The singers were also asked to self-report how stressed they were feeling to confirm they perceived the two nights to be low or high stress. The reason Fancourt et al. (2015) examined cortisol and cortisone production is because they specifically wanted to see how singing under different conditions activated the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a major pathway that regulates acute stress. Cortisol is the major driver of physiological stress and its symptoms (ex. Increased heart rate and blood pressure). Cortisone is an inactive byproduct of cortisol that can be converted back into cortisol, acting as a reservoir to continue the stress response as needed while also tempering the harmful effects of excess cortisol activity in the tissues, such as chronic inflammation (Everlywell, 2024; Rupa Health, n.d.).
What I found fascinating about Fancourt et al.’s (2015) findings is that the level of pre-performance cortisol and cortisone were very similar between the low-stress and high-stress environments: before the singers sang, they consistently experience a spike in their cortisol/cortisone ratio, regardless of low or high stress conditions. However, what changed on a physiological level was how the singers’ cortisol/cortisone ratio shifted over the course of their performance. During low-stress conditions, both cortisol and cortisone dropped significantly. Conversely, during high-stress conditions, cortisol and cortisone levels continued to rise (Figure 2A).
That being said, note that, under high stress, while cortisol is rising, cortisone rises at a faster rate. Thus, when you look at the mean cortisol/cortisone ratio overall, the value decreases in both low and high-stress scenarios (Figure 2B). Moreover, the singers self-reporting on their anxiety indicates that they, indeed, felt less stressed after performing on both nights (Figure 1), although the gap was much larger on high-stress nights. What these data suggest is that singing is generally a relaxing experience and, interestingly, the relaxation response we consciously experience may have something to do with the rise and subsequent drop in our cortisol/cortisone ratio.
(Fancourt et al., 2025, 3)
(Fancourt et al., 2025, 4)
References
Fancourt D., Aufegger L., and Williamon A. (2015). Low-stress and high-stress singing have contrasting effects on glucocorticoid response. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(1242). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01242
Everlywell. (2024, January 23). Understanding cortisol vs. cortisone. https://www.everlywell.com/blog/womens-health/cortisol-vs-cortisone/
Rupa Health. (n.d.). Cortisol/Cortisone ratio. https://www.rupahealth.com/biomarkers/cortisol-cortisone-ratio
This is an interesting study, especially how the cortisol/cortisone ratio dropped in both the low- and high-stress conditions. It's a nice way to show that the relaxation effect doesn't depend on the stakes of the performance. Since cortisol and cortisone were both still rising after the high-stress performance, do you think the ratio drop reflects a relaxation response, or is it the body ramping up its buffering against the stress? It makes me curious whether singing itself is doing the work.
ReplyDeleteI found this paper saying that singing stimulates greater positive shifts in self-perceived affect compared to speaking (Bowling et al., 2022). This could be proof that singing is relaxing.
Source:
Bowling, D. L., Gahr, J., Ancochea, P. G., Hoeschele, M., Canoine, V., Fusani, L., & Fitch, W. T. (2022). Endogenous oxytocin, cortisol, and testosterone in response to group singing. Hormones and Behavior, 139, 105105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105105
I appreciate your question! I am also wondering if it's common in other scenarios for the body to raise the cortisol/cortisone and allow the ratio to drop to achieve relaxation. Your idea about the body preemptively "buffering" for anticipated stress is compelling to me, especially since the singers in this study apparently had high cortisol/cortisone levels even though they consciously identified one performance as low-stress.
DeleteAfter our most recent lecture, I also think that maybe the relaxation effect is partially induced by the respiratory system. We talked about how the parasympathetic nervous system is activated by slow exhalation. Singing is all about controlled breathing and extended exhalation, so I could see how it might activate those PNS pathways.
Hi Marco! This is a really good study. I am very happy to see you choosing music related topic. I knew you were interested and passionate about music but am glad to see you being curious about why music induce relaxation. This topic overall is very interesting and directly connect to what we have learning in class like HPA axis, stress, cortisol, etc. The result shows the cortisol level is high and cortisone rises at faster rate under high stress. Do you think the cortisol level would be similar if the singer were placed to perform to the same audience again? Would the singers with little or no experience of singing on the stage show same cortisol and cortisone results? Do you think drinking a coffee (caffeine consumption), time of the day, or how much sleep singer got influence the cortisol and cortisone level/rate? Also, out of curiosity, how many participants were there in each group?
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