How Musicians Benefit From The Three Pillars of Health

I gave some of the first steps to beginning a health journey two weeks ago, but I realized I never explained why that should be so important. While most of the benefits of health are common knowledge, it is important to know how to apply them to your career as a musician. This is an overview of some of the benefits of getting under control the three pillars of health and wellness: sleep, mindful eating, and movement/exercise. If you notice, there is a lot of overlap between each category because these things all impact one another to enable a healthy and happy life.

(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional nor do I seek to replace professional care. Prior to making any substantial lifestyle changes, please speak to your primary care physician.)

Benefits of prioritizing sleep

Sleep is the most important thing to your body that we often ignore. It is easy to work into all hours of the night to get things done and push off your sleep schedule for what seems like productivity. Sleep, however, is the one time of day your body gets to rest and reset for the next day. If your sleep is off, your body cannot function to its fullest potential. Poor sleep has been linked to a number of diseases and mental health problems, and getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night has been shown to cause the following benefits:

1. Reduced stress

Sleep and stress are strongly correlated with one another. Those who are more stressed tend to get less sleep, and those who sleep more tend to be less stressed. As musicians, stress reduction is important—our entire careers are based off of acute stress to strengthen performance and discipline. Getting more sleep will enable us to better handle the daily stresses of being a musician. Rather than suffer burnout as stress builds up, sleeping more can expand your stress endurance.

2. Better mood

In one survey, people who slept less than 8 hours a night were found to report higher levels of irritability and anger than those who slept at least 8 hours. To be perceived as pleasant to work with, it is important that we are in positive moods to enable effective collaboration with other musicians. In the past, I struggled with this, but more recently, as soon as I began to sleep enough, I have had much more fulfilling collaborations with my peers.

3. Better social interactions

Poor sleep has been linked to negative social interactions due to a difficulty processing others’ emotions. Not only could you be irritable, but with poor sleep, you could perceive others as negative when they aren’t. Again, for beneficial collaborations in chamber music or ensemble sections, communication is key. If you cannot detect a colleague’s emotions accurately, you may end up creating or perceiving a conflict that never existed.

4. Better cognitive function

Giving the body and mind a chance to rest has numerous cognitive benefits. Quality sleep has been shown to improve memory, productivity, and performance whereas sleep deprivation has had the opposite effects. This means that the value of the time spent in the practice room is affected by your sleep. If you had poor sleep the night before, you may not retain any of the progress you are making, you might not be as productive with the time you have, and your physical ability to perform your instrument may be impaired.

5. Reduced chance of illness

All music students are familiar with the “plague” of each semester—when one person gets sick and manages to transmit it to nearly the entire student population. This tends to happen around the middle or end of the semester when stress levels are high as students put off sleeping to finish their large number of obligations. In a study done on 150 people aged 21-55, researchers found that those who received less than 7 hours of sleep a night were about three times more likely than those who slept 8 hours or more to catch the common cold upon exposure to the virus. Sleeping an adequate amount will help you to remain in a physically healthy condition while the people around you are getting sick.

Benefits of a nutritious diet

Nutrition is important as what you eat fuels your daily activity. As musicians with busy lives, it is easy to grab convenient unhealthy options or even forgo your body’s hunger cues altogether because of the hours spent in the practice room. If you put watered-down gas in your car, you would not expect it to have optimal performance—yes, it may work, but not very well and not for long. For this reason, we should be mindful of the food we put into our bodies so that we can function at our best capacities. It is also important to note that some people have intolerances to certain “health” foods, so pay close attention to how the consumption of certain foods makes you feel. In general, eating a balanced diet comprised of whole foods with proper macro and micronutrients has been shown to have the following benefits:

1. More energy

I have found when I consume whole foods (fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.), I have more energy to get through my day. Consequently, if I eat something greasy or overly processed, I feel lethargic. This tends to affect how productive I am in my practicing and overall attitude towards the day.

2. Less bloating and inflammation

Bloating and inflammation are common side effects of consuming foods that aren’t good for your body. People tend to build up a tolerance for these effects after consistently eating poorly. When you reduce the foods that cause this, by consuming a more nutritious diet and paying attention to how you react to each food, the chronic bloating and inflammation will diminish, allowing you to feel physically better and able to perform at your best potential.

3. Better mood

Consuming a balanced diet with proper micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) has also been linked to a better mood. Studies have shown that nutrient deficiencies have resulted in depressed mood. When these deficiencies were corrected, the participants’ moods significantly improved. It was also found that receiving these nutrients in supplements rather than in consumed foods did not produce the same effects.

4. Better sleep

This goes back to bloating and inflammation. It is harder to sleep if you are uncomfortable from your most recent meal. As I explained the health consequences and benefits surrounding sleep in the last section, eating so you can get the best sleep possible will impact you in several ways.

5. Lowers risk for diseases

Poor diet is linked to a number of chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and heart disease. People with a poor diet also have a higher risk for stroke, some forms of cancer, heart attack, and alzheimers. Lowering the risk of these poor health consequences is beneficial to everyone.

Benefits of movement

Movement and exercise can only truly be considered once the first two pillars are met. If your body doesn’t have the energy from adequate rest or proper fuel, adding exercise will only make things worse. Assuming sleep and nutrition are in check, incorporating more movement or even structured exercise into your day can do a lot for you. If you are stuck on how to incorporate more movement into your day, see my earlier post with a few tips to do so and stay tuned for next week's focus on time. Here are some of the benefits of movement and exercise—reasons it is well worth making the time for.

1. Better energy, focus, and productivity

Regular exercise has been shown to increase energy, focus, and productivity of people throughout their days. For us as musicians, these benefits can allow us to have more meaningful practice time and rehearsals that accomplish more in a shorter amount of time.

2. Stronger muscles, bones, and respiratory function

Making music is a very physical activity so we must have good physical health in order to reach our true potential. Exercise can help this by strengthening your muscles and bones and improving your respiratory health to assist with endurance and overall function.

3. Decreased risk of injury

With stronger muscles and bones comes a decreased risk of injury. Playing certain instruments requires repetitive unnatural movements that often result in injuries later in life. By exercising and counteracting these motions to correct muscle imbalances, musicians can substantially reduce the risk for these playing injuries in the future.

4. Improved mental health

Exercise is often considered one of the best natural remedies for anxiety and depression because of its mood boosting effects. Because of the uncertainty of our careers right now, mental health issues may be more prevalent among musicians than ever. Even the slight mood boost by exercise is more beneficial than doing nothing at all.

5. Better sleep

And, here it is again! Regular exercise has been shown to improve sleep quality. Exercising will allow you to get to sleep faster and sleep deeper than without it. Be aware, however, that exercising too close to bedtime will mess up your sleep. Aim to stop exercising at least 2 hours before bed.

These are only some of the many benefits of prioritizing the three health pillars. Hopefully these reasons were enough to convince you to at least start monitoring your lifestyle. Next week, I will discuss ways to navigate scheduling to prioritize sleep and make time for exercise.