The Life-Changing Power of Music

“Don’t discount the power that music has on you!”

Senior Honors student Olivia Coleman loves music: indie pop, rock, alternative, jazz, and of course classical! Other students love rap, country, R&B, and a plethora of other genres. Music can change our mood almost instantaneously, but what if it could also change lives?

Olivia is doing a double major in Music and Psychology. For her Honors thesis, she is looking into the possible effects of music therapy on sleep for those undergoing treatment for substance use disorders. Music therapy can be used in many fields, including psychological therapy, or for patients with autism, PTSD, and Parkinson’s.

Insomnia and issues with sleep are common among those recovering from these disorders, creating barriers to recovery. Music therapy offers a unique approach in listening to, creating, or even playing with music. These techniques will hopefully play a key role in helping to decrease insomnia and increase healthy sleeping patterns. This will also help facilitate positive and lasting recovery.

Olivia has a love for music in all aspects: teaching, composing, listening, and performing. She also has a love for psychology and the effects that therapy, and specifically music therapy, have on people. When she was in high school, she was part of the University of Georgia Honors Band and learned about music therapy for the first time. As soon as she heard about this concept, she knew she had found her path.

When Olivia first began studying at BYU, she was unsure if it would be feasible to combine the two disciplines. Music and Psychology are not often paired in educational pursuits, and she used to wonder how it would all work out. Being part of the interdisciplinary Honors Program helped her to see that it was not only possible, but would be a worthwhile pursuit. “Honors made this click happen and I was able to put these things together in a way that I would not have been able to do otherwise,” she says.

Professors and mentors at BYU have also supported her interdisciplinary approach to education. While looking into possible research opportunities, she met with Dr. Ben Ogles, Professor of Psychology, who was working on a project of music therapy and substance use disorder recovery. He helped her find some clarity and a path to take for her project. “I walked out of that meeting feeling on top of the world” Olivia remembers. He agreed to serve as the faculty chair of her thesis committee and has continued to mentor her research project.

Her project is almost unprecedented, as there is not much research measuring the effectiveness of music therapy on sleep for those in recovery. It can also be difficult to capture the effects of these studies. Olivia’s research seeks to answer these questions and find ways to improve prolonged recovery.

She shared that through this research it has been surprising to learn about the factors that can dramatically impact sleep. She is discovering that while there is not a lot of prior data on music therapy in this way, there are clear connections between sleep and recovery. “If you can help sleep, you can decrease the rate of relapse” Olivia says, a critical way to help others.

Olivia explained that substance use disorders alter sleep, an example demonstrated through alcohol consumption before bed. Alcohol pushes the body into sleep faster than is natural, altering the body’s homeostasis. Using alcohol to aid sleep over a prolonged period and then trying to sleep without it is a real challenge. The body becomes confused, and recovery can be derailed because sleep is harder to achieve without alcohol’s effects. The need for support in sleep during recovery is irrefutable.

The results of the study are now in, showing the effectiveness of music therapy on sleep, and thus recovery. Olivia studied two groups, one with music intervention and one without (the control group). The music intervention group “significantly decreased stress compared to the control group” for the entire study, with a slight decrease after only the first session. Overall, the study provided evidence to prove the effectiveness of music therapy on sleep, with significant improvements in sleep quality throughout the study. These results demonstrate the powerful and positive impact that combining disciplines can create.

Olivia has grown and come to understand the value of interdisciplinary thinking in her majors as well as her research. Speaking of the connections in different areas, she said, “they seem pretty separate, but there’s these underlying core values that they both follow, and this is where true understanding and power comes from.” There is something special about tying together seemingly opposite ideas and thoughts. Olivia continues, “we all add to this big pool of meaning to understand each other better, and to connect.” She hopes her research will not only add to the limited scholarship available about music therapy, but will be helpful to rehabilitation centers and others treating insomnia disorders.