Nuphonics™ Articles
What you hear has a powerful affect on your life.
Music and sound are very real forms of energy that, like other energy forms, can be controlled and directed to achieve a desired outcome. This energy has the power to do things like shatter glass, affect the functioning of internal organs, and even be used to subdue an enemy. It can also be used, among other things, to facilitate physical healing, reduce pain, treat psychological and behavioral disorders, improve one’s strength and ability to compete, and enhance the ability to develop and learn.
Ongoing research and testing is uncovering amazing applications and possibilities for the use of music and sound as a strategic tool for allowing people to live happier, healthier, and more effective lives. The challenge and opportunity is to understand and use this powerful energy source as a more deliberate tool for good in our lives.
Every day, we are bombarded with music and sounds that are either inhibiting or enhancing the effectiveness and quality of our lives. While some of what we hear is useful, oftentimes more of what we hear is noise pollution that has a detrimental affect on our lives.
Often, without being aware, we allow our days to be filled with this noise pollution that takes a heavy toll on our mental, emotional, and physical states of functioning. As these three states of functioning are the key drivers of how we feel, how we perform, and what we are able to accomplish, understanding and directing the things that affect them should be a bigger priority in our lives.
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Victor Hugo
Volumes of research and testing have shown that music and sound have the powerful ability to help transition us into and out of these different states of functioning. It does this through various audio elements like the words, musical structure, and vibration patterns that are used.
The scientific fact is that the energy and elements that make up music and sound are powerful facilitators of both motion and emotion, which have been shown to have a direct biological effect upon how our bodies function. Its occurrence is complex but the fact that it does happen can be personally tested through simply paying greater attention to every day interactions.
A Simple Example
A man named Mark shared how he came to recognize that his difficulty with sleeping was directly related to a combination of mental, emotional, and physiological responses he was having to sounds he was hearing throughout the night. Mark explained how he was having difficulty sleeping through the night and was feeling the ill affects of many nights without normal sleep. He felt frustrated by his circumstances because he often went to bed exhausted and quickly fell asleep only to find that he tossed and turned to the sounds of his furnace continually turning on and off throughout the night. He also noted that not only was he cycling in and out of sleep in sync with his furnace, but he was also experiencing high levels of anxiety that created physiological shifts in his breathing, heart rate, and muscle tension. The overall result of all this was a mental, emotional, and physical state that was further preventing him from getting deep and restful sleep.
After learning more about the interconnected affect that the audio environment has on all three dimensions of functioning, Mark began noticing how what he was thinking and feeling during his times of restless sleep may be influencing his physiological shifts in breathing, heart rate, and tension.
To his surprise, he realized that a large part of his ongoing anxiety and stress was coming from his anger and frustration with the poor insulation in his home. Each time his furnace turned on and off he was not only awakened but also reminded of how much heat his house must be loosing and therefore how high his heating bill would be. Anger and frustration led to physical changes that put him in an overall state that was not conducive to sleep.
Practical Observations
Like Mark, each of us is affected daily in significant ways by what we hear. Also like Mark, what we hear has a direct affect on how we think, feel, and physically function and therefore on our circumstances, outcomes, and quality of life.
Think for a minute how the audio environment practically affects you each day. Stop and just listen to what sounds are part of your normal day. For some, our worlds are filled with sounds that are loud, noisy, and hectic. Perhaps we are simultaneously hearing many different types of music and sound coming from TV’s and radios throughout the house, loud and angry voice tones, or the continuous sounds of blaring sirens.
Notice the affect that this audio environment is having on your thoughts, feelings, and actions. In this environment, do you have the ability to study, unwind, de-stress, or interact effectively with others? For others, their world may be filled with a great deal of silence with little more than the sounds of outside traffic and the ticking of a clock to break up the monotony of the day. How does this environment affect how we think, feel, and act? Does the lack of certain sounds facilitate thoughts, feelings, and actions that take from us the desire to live and enjoy our lives?
In many cases, we have become so accustomed to the sounds around us that we don’t even notice them anymore. At the end of the day, our heads ache, our emotions are on edge, our blood pressure is high, and we are filled with anxiety. We then often end up struggling through a restless night of sleep only to awake to a new day where it all starts over again.
Because we continue to be unaware of the affect that our audio environment has on us, we are living as victims to it. The great news is that we are fully capable of reversing our cycle and turning our audio environment into a powerful force for good in our lives. We can do this by better understanding “how” music and sound affect our lives and deliberately directing it in ways that help us achieve our goals and objectives.
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Can the Right Music Reduce Stress?
Kaylene Nelsen, Assistant City Editor
Utah Daily Herald
Can the right music really reduce stress? Wayne Musgrave thinks so and so do the doctors at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Behavioral Medicine (UVRMC). Musgrave has been involved in the music production business for many years.
Last year he developed 50 tapes for a psychologist to use in treating stress and related problems. Now, he is personalizing the tapes to meet the individual needs of patients referred to him by UVRMC doctors.
"We've had some very favorable response to this," said Bruce Busenbark, program director for the Adult Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine Unit at UVRMC.
"Since time immemorial music has had an impact on people. It shapes their ideas and feelings," Busenbark explained. "Few people understand the message it can carry, how persuasive it can be, how healing it can be."
He also pointed out the medical fact that music addresses the right side of the brain, the same area where most emotions are centered. Music can then have a more significant impact on such things as stress, pain and other emotional problems.
Musgrave has also studied the affect of music therapy and worked with Dr. Steven Halperin, known as the father of music therapy. "It's basically my idea to personalize it, though," he explained.
Watching the affect of music on his own children, Musgrave developed a tape for use with babies and toddlers to calm them down. "If it works for children it should work for adults," he said, pointing out the tapes he made for a California psychologist last year. "Then I came up with the idea to personalize it.” Musgrave interviews patients in his music studio filled with a synthesizer, speakers and other electronic equipment.
He finds out the kinds of music and tones the patient likes, favorite instruments, pleasing sounds such as beach or mountain sounds and pleasant experiences. Then he mixes those sounds and music into a 45-minute tape.
"My thing is pop a cassette instead of a pill." One patient used his tape immediately following surgery. "It helped him think about pleasant relaxing times rather than the immediate pain," Musgrave said. A patient trying to work with pain control would get a specialized tape. Music and sounds are used to assimilate the pain and then the music gradually moves to a calmer level. The patient tries to move the pain to a more manageable level as well. "We create an atmosphere of comfort. We can't take the pain completely away," Musgrave said. "You have to learn how to use your mind in a way you normally don't. We take the pain and lessen it through sound.”
Musgrave is pleased with the acceptance his idea has been given at UVRMC. He sees at least three patients a week. Developing a tape takes about two hours. "The doctors loved it so much they wanted me to do it for them. The reason they're sold is because patients say it works."
"Marrying music to a particular picture or scene" is something Musgrave has had a lot of experience with. He has recorded religious, popular and Christmas tapes that sell on the commercial market. He has also scored music for films. But doing the individualized tapes has given him more satisfaction than his previous work. "I toured with a group. The gratification you receive from that is applause. It's over quickly, the applause is gone. This way I'm using my talents, my music, helping people on a one-to-one basis. I don't really need that approval anymore."
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Karen Hoag
The Daily Herald
It's time for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and Wayne Musgrave has the music to go with the winter sports in his newly released CD, "The Competitive Spirit."
He's gone inside the heads of figure skaters, downhill and cross-country skiers, bobsledders, and hockey players and produced the rhythm of the sport with synthesizers. "Speed skaters go slow and gradually increase," Musgrave said. "If they go too fast they won't finish."
He composed music to go with the swirls, downbeats and upbeats of each winter sport. He said the idea came to him a few years ago because of the Sybervision Sports films he's produced.
"It just seemed natural to do the Olympics," said Musgrave, a long-time road musician. "Instead of the 'hurray' types coming out, I wanted to take the scientific point of view.
"The athletes experience something you and I never feel. What's going on inside their heads at the time of performance? It's music."
Musgrave said Olympic athletes are being fed music that they use as a road map and land perfectly on the downbeat, "but they have their own compositions going on inside their heads, too."
Recording the album was like "scoring a film. There's a rhythm. I composed the music to help motivate our athletes and hope it moves them," he said.
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Posted on UpForReview May 15th, 2008
Music really does affect our emotions, our physical well-being and our mental capacity. Don’t believe me? Then I would tell you to conduct a little experiment. Just try watching the next scary movie you rent on mute and you’ll see what I mean. The mood music really does a lot of the work to get you all psyched-out. For me, eerie music even makes my muscles tense up.
Music can do more than make us tense though. If it can swing your emotions one way, then why not the other? Fortunately, it does work both ways. Consequently, more and more people are discovering the benefits of relaxation music. A few of the benefits include the ability to sleep, think, relax and even heal better than you could before. As unbelievable as it sounds, these are not outlandish claims. Hundreds or doctors and scientists have tested the effects that music produces and found that it can make a big different in physical, mental and emotional well-being.
Just replacing ambient noises in your working environment with any kind of soothing music can make a huge difference in how tired and cranky you are by the end of the day. But, investing in music that has been composed with specific goals in mind could be even better for you.
Nuphonics™ is a company that provides this specific kind of product. They have done their research on music and the energy and emotions that it creates. With their research in hand, they then compose CD’s that are each designed to facilitate different activities like management, sleep or stress relief. If you want to learn more about their relaxation music and the science behind their products, visit their website at Nuphonics.com.
Click here to order your CD or instant download MP3 of Nuphonics™ music.
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By Art Gib
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/can-music-spell-relief-442535.html
http://www.pillfreevitamins.com/articles/articles/13329/1/Can-M-U-S-I-C-Spell-Relief/Page1.html
Every day we are surrounded by things that can affect our mood, outlook, stress levels, and more. From the very air we inhale to the sounds of our environment. The sounds of Grand Central Station, for example, bring you a different feeling than the sounds of a desert completely devoid of humans. Modern science shows that these two different environments impact our health in different ways both emotionally and physically.
We have known for centuries that too much sunlight is unhealthy, as is too little. Inhaling polluted air isn't so great for you either. Having a job where you never seem to be able to get ahead on your workload is known to increase stress levels and have a negative physical impact on your body.
But something else that has also been known for years is the fact that music can also have positive and negative physiological effects on your body. This knowledge is not as widespread as, say, the effects of eating healthy, but those who do have this knowledge have been using it to their advantage for hundreds of years.
Relaxation music has been shown to help people relieve stress, sleep, heal, and just be happier overall. That relaxation music can have such a profound affect on the body may be difficult to believe for some folks. But consider how quickly the population is to believe that certain types of hard or heavy rock music are to blame for influencing their listeners to commit suicide, murder others, or even worship demons.
The Chinese, whose culture is ancient compared to other modern cultures, first noticed the positive effect of music on the body and mind thousands of years ago. The Holy Bible even tells the story of a king who suffered from depression. The only remedy this king found to be effective was the music that came from the boy David, who would one day be king himself, as he played his lyra.
But it has only been in the last few hundred years that anybody in the west has taken seriously the idea that music is good for the soul. The benefits of listening to relaxation music are studied more seriously today more than at any other point in the history of modern civilization. Findings seem to consistently show that music has the ability to bring pain relief, improve mood, quicken healing, and more. Interest is high due to music's ability to produce these results without the use of drugs.
Author Resource:- Nuphonics™ (http://www.nuphonics.com) specializes in relaxation music and other types of music to match up with a person's individual needs. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.
Click here to order your CD or instant download MP3 of Nuphonics™ music.
Sleep Tips
Suggested sleep routines, rituals, and natural sleep enhancer ideas.
1) Go to bed and get up at the same time every day and don’t change your timing even and especially on the weekends.
2) Take a warm (but not overly hot) bath. Consider adding a relaxing essential oil to the water.
3) Read a book of a low intellectual demand like a low-key novel or a mindless magazine.
4) Eat a calming food before you go to sleep: Bananas, milky drinks, and whole-meal crackers.
5) Drink a cup of warm herbal tea prior to bedtime. Find a single or combination tea that works for you. Starter suggestions: chamomile, dandelion leaves, passionflower, or lavender. Check to make sure the blends do not contain caffeine.
6) Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol all disturb sleep and should be avoided at least 6 hours prior to sleep. Keep in mind that if caffeine is used anytime during the day, its stimulant effects will most likely still disturb sleep.
7) Exercise during the day facilitates deeper sleep, although it should be completed at least three hours prior to bedtime. Stretching just prior to bedtime assists sleep. Intimacy prior to sleep, if met with agreement, is conducive to sleep.
8) Try to eliminate daytime naps. If you do nap, do so before 3:00 PM and limit to 30 minutes.
9) Get the right pillow and sleep with as few blankets as possible.
10) Calm your mental activity by concluding your work, turning off the TV and/or computer, and solving the day’s problems at least one hour prior sleep.
11) Ideally, your room should be dark and free from distracting noises and flashing lights. Consider wearing a therapeutic eye mask.
12) If you don’t fall asleep in a reasonable time and find frustration mounting, get out of bed and do a boring task such as reading the refrigerator warrantee or browsing the dictionary. Keep the lights dimmed and don’t look at the clock!
13) One of the biggest challenges for many people who have difficulty sleeping is shutting off mind chatter. Use simple ways to reduce and release mind chatter in order to prepare your mind for sleep. Capture stray thoughts, concerns, or tasks via paper and pen, or with a digital recorder. This promotes your mind to relax as you exercise your personal control and sleep boundaries. Leave a notepad/pen next to your bed for possible persistent emerging thoughts.
14) Establish morning rituals. When you wake up, be awake. Open the blinds, turn on the lights, and/or go outside. Research has shown the amazing effects that 15 minutes of facing the sun has on mood and one’s circadian rhythm cycle regulation. Minimize your morning stress by getting up 15 to 30 minutes early. This sets you up for relaxed success and a sequential night’s sleep.
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Entrainment
Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 1695) was a prominent Dutch scientist who was the first to observe the synchronization of frequencies. He observed that two pendulum clocks, when mounted on a common wall, tended to synchronize in their pendulums’ motions. Brainwave entrainment, or brainwave synchronization, is any practice that aims to cause brainwave frequencies to fall into step with a frequency corresponding to the intended brain-state (for example, to induce sleep). The human brain has a tendency to change its dominant frequency towards the frequency of a dominant external stimulus.
Nuphonics™ products have been scientifically designed by combining beautiful ambient music with a unique blend of audio frequencies, rhythmic patterns, and other musical structure. As your brain and body synchronize with these frequencies and patterns, a transition into a desired state is enabled. Just as physical exercise trains the body to manage greater stress and demands, Nuphonics™ music entrains the brain and body to function at a higher level of thought, emotion, and activity. Regular listening to your Nuphonics™ compositions will create this entraining affect.
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Music Engages Many Brain Regions
"Music listening, performance, and composition engage nearly every area of the brain that we have so far identified, and involve nearly every neural subsystem."
"This is Your Brain," Daniel J. Levitin, Pg. 9
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Brain Neurons Copy Precise Musical Frequencies
"If I put electrodes in your visual cortex (the part of the brain at the back of the head, concerned with seeing), and I then showed you a red tomato, there is no group of neurons that will cause my electrodes to turn red. But if I put electrodes in your auditory cortex and play a pure tone in your ears at 440 Hz, there are neurons in your auditory cortex that will fire at precisely that frequency, causing the electrode to emit electrical activity at 440 Hz—for pitch, what goes into the ear comes out of the brain!"
- "This is Your Brain," Daniel J. Levitin, Pg. 29
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Music Shortens Hospital Stays For Patients
Dr. Mathew H.M. Lee, "We've seen confirmation of music's benefits in helping to avoid serious complications during illness, enhancing patients' well-being and shortening hospital stays."
...Georgia Baptist Medical Center, found that premature babies gained weight faster and were able to use oxygen more efficiently when they listened to soothing music.
- Reader's Digest, Music's Surprising Power to Heal, by David M. Mazie
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Music and Your Emotional Health
“Music sounds like feelings feel…Nuphonics™ music has the ability to change the brainwaves and the emotional content of what a person is experiencing.”—Dr. Martin Pond, Professor of Music Technology
“Exercise is the master system that tells our cells to grow instead of fade….The other master signal to our cells—equal and, in some respects, even more important than exercise—is emotion. One of the most fascinating revelations of the last decade is that emotions change our cells through he same molecular pathways as exercise.” –Dr. Henry S. Lodge, “You Can Stop “Normal” Aging”,
- Parade Magazine, March 18, 2007.
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Music and Your Blood Pressure
“Listening to just 30 minutes of rhythmically homogeneous music every day combined with slow abdominal breathing may significantly reduce high blood pressure, according to the American Society of Hypertension. Study investigator Professor Pietro A. Modesti, MD, PhD reported that “Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure, but for the first time today’s results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ambulatory blood pressure. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, and non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement therapy.”
- Newswise, May 14, 2008
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Other Articles of Interest
by dyllionaire
http://hubpages.com/hub/Relaxation-Music
Why You should Use More Music
I use music for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes I wanna get mega pumped up before I play basketball. For that, I prefer a bangin beat. By bangin I mean it makes my head nod quickly and uncontrollably.
Other times I need music that will help me concentrate and relax. For that I prefer instrumentals. No words. If there are words then I get distracted and that defeats the whole purpose of concentration!
Kids + bedtime = hard times. It doesn't always have to be. One trick I've discovered is to use calm relaxing music to get them ready for some serious sleep. After a crazy day of playing, messing up freshly cleaned rooms and eating, use relaxation music to calm the wiggle worts.
Shoot, if you're a grown up kid like me, it'll still work.
Here's a quick tip! If you want hyper kids to calm down, use a song with a beginning tempo the same as their heartbeat. Then gradually work them down to a slower tempo. It really does wonders to relax them.
Science of Music
Before I get into how to effectively use music to relax, let's discuss the science behind it. Wait, I know! I said science and many of you started to snooze. Well, Wake Up! It's really quite fascinating.
In 2001, a group did a test to see how music would help a person heal after a surgery. They found that patients found a more complete relief (10-30%) by using a combination of relaxation, music and their combination. Read the study summary for a quick look. Another group found that relaxation music decreased the amount of self-controlled sedation a patient would use during surgery. That means the music helped kill their pain!
Most people know and understand the effects music can have our emotions and physical well being. Science is just telling us that we're right!
How to Relax With Your Music
Set Aside Time
Block out a section of time and don't let anything distract you from it. During this time you have one purpose - To calm down, unwind and relax. Let your friends, roomates, family and others know that this time is very important to you and you won't accept distractions.
Set Aside Location
Location is just as important as time. You want to select a quiet and distant spot. Your area should be warm and welcoming to allow you to really let go of your thoughts and worries.
Remove Distractions
Like I said before, this is your time. Lovingly tell the wife, kids and all pets to go and stay away. If you take a couple minutes before hand to explain why and what your doing to your little ones, you'll stop interruptions before they can happen. Don't bring your laptop, phone or other communication device because the temptation will be way too strong to get distracted.
Select Music
Each person prefers a different style of music that resonates with them. So select your sounds carefully. For relaxation and concentration, I really dig smooth trip hop beats without any lyrics. Singing is fine if the words aren't discernable. Words get me thinking and if my brain ticks too much then I can't relax anymore. One of my favorite artists is J Boogie. In fact, I'm listening to some right now!
Listen To and Concentrate on Music
This is very important. Throughout the day we have a million thought that come into our minds. I like to clear out my brain every once in a while and listening to music is a great way to do that. To get the best results I can't and don't want to let in any distracting thoughts. Its like a mind purge so focus on the music and let go.
Click here to order your CD or instant download MP3 of Nuphonics™ music.
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Improve Your Health Through Relaxation Music
By Art Gib
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/improve-your-health-through-relaxation-music-426044.html
Everything in our environment has an impact on our individual well-being. The amount of sunlight we see, the quality of the air we breathe, the kinds of food we eat and the things we hear all affect our mental, emotional and physical health.
Since we need at least a little sunlight, food and air just to survive there have been a lot of studies on how these things affect us and most people know the value of sunscreen, healthy eating and clean air. But a much smaller number of people know the far-reaching effects that our audio environment has on individual well-being too. However, hundreds of years of experience have shown that beautiful music can help you sleep, grow, heal, relax and be happy.
As early as the ancient Chinese empires, people have noticed the positive effects of music on afflicted persons. Then, in the seventeenth century, Robert Burton proclaimed that, "besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it [music] is a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself."
Research on the benefits of music still continues today. Many physicians have conducted studies to test the effects of music on pain relief, depression and healing and they consistently find that music facilitates all the positive changes they are trying to cultivate.
Unlike many drugs that are used to help restore emotional balance or relieve pain, relaxation music accomplishes the same tasks without any negative side effects like drowsiness and chemical addictions. It is also more affordable and accessible than medication. You don't have to be a musician to enjoy music and it lasts longer than medication because the same CD or tape that you listen to can be played again and again over the years.
Another great attribute of relaxation music is that you can benefit from its effects while participating in other tasks. Listening to music doesn't require your hands or all of your attention. Still, just having it play in the background can alleviate stress and spark enough activity in your brain to increase your mental capacity. Replace the ambient noises of your office or home and note how much smoother your days and weeks go by.
Many businesses, like restaurants and spas, also add to the beauty and appeal of their atmosphere with peaceful music. This is partially because different kinds of music are more suited for enhancing certain activities than others. Whether you want to get more sleep, heal faster, be happier, increase your concentration, get rid of stress, or even make people feel more hungry, chances are there a type of music that can make it happen.
Author Resource:- Nuphonics™ (http://www.nuphonics.com) specializes in relaxation music and other types of music to match up with a person's individual needs. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.
Click here to order your CD or instant download MP3 of Nuphonics™ music.
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Posted by News Desk on July 3rd
Thousands of people suffer from varying degrees of sleep disorders - from severe insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome that require fairly serious medical remedies, to some very general sleep difficulties that can be treated by over-the-counter medication or a CD of relaxation music.
For my entire adult life, I have had some pretty serious sleep issues. I still don’t know if I have some sort of medical disorder, or (the more likely scenario) I just have serious trouble shutting my mind down at night. I often find myself thinking/worrying about the day to come, or the day that is ending - what I could have done different, what I need to remember to do, etc.
I really do think this is my problem, because I generally sleep well on the weekends, but during the weeknights, I find myself easily distracted by my thoughts. I have, however found a couple of things that help.
While relaxation music doesn’t really do much for me, I have found that white noise (a gentle whooshing noise) helps me clear my mind and also helps drain out the ambient noises from around the house and the neighborhood. Additionally, while I have never been on any prescription-strength sleep aids, I have tried several over-the-counter remedies.
My favorite over-the-counter sleep aid is low-dose melatonin. Melatonin is a natural chemical produced by the brain that helps regulate your circadian rhythm (your daily sleep cycle). Because its natural, it is safe to take for occasionally trouble sleeping, and numerous studies have shown that it actually helps prevent migraines and cluster headaches, and is an effective treatment for bipolar disorder. Extensive clinical trials offer that it has no significant side effects with short-term use and is completely safe as an over-the-counter supplement.
I’m sure that melatonin doesn’t work for everyone, but in my opinion it is a cheap and dependency-free solution for my sleep disorder issues.
Click here to order your CD or instant download MP3 of Nuphonics™ music.