This very enjoyable habit can lower your dementia risk for years to come

Everyone’s always looking for more healthy habits to improve their quality of life and longevity. Whether you’re trying to drink more water, get more sleep, or eat healthier, there’s always another milestone to accomplish, or another goal to reach.

But you may not have considered one simple hobby that can drastically reduce your risk of dementia, expand your memory capabilities, and keep you mentally healthy for longer.

The answer is surprisingly fun, too – playing music.

Reducing your risk of dementia

About 20% of Americans aged 65 or older experience some form of MCI, or mild cognitive impairment. MCI is defined as the “pre-clinical state between normal cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease.” Up to 38% of those adults will go on to develop Alzheimer’s within just 5 years.

However, certain activities, such as being physically active, eating balanced meals, quitting smoking, controlling high blood pressure, and drinking less, can reduce your overall risk for both MCI and Alzheimer’s.

Other research has shown that adopting social habits, such as forming meaningful connections, addressing depression, and engaging in your community, can help ward off MCI. Now, playing music can be definitively added to the list, according to a new study from the Journal of American Geriatrics Society.

How playing an instrument can impact your risk

A total of 21 studies with 1472 participants were analyzed to produce results finding with 95% confidence that playing music can serve as an intervention to slow or decrease MCI and dementia, improve quality of life, and boost mood.

And you don’t have to be an expert musician either — even just singing regularly has a beneficial effect on working memory, executive function, and orientation. The benefits of playing music are about on par with those that come from regular exercise.

“Sound is evolutionarily ancient,” explains neuroscientist Nina Kraus of Northwestern University. The music-to-memory connection is deeply rooted inside the human brain, as part of the central nervous system. You may have accessed it yourself when flipping through radio stations, without realizing just how quickly the brain can process if the song that’s playing is one you already know. Researchers have noticed a similar recall effect that hearing familiar music has on dementia patients.

Playing songs from certain eras, or songs that are related to a patient’s personal history has been able to stimulate memories of loved ones, facilitating connections that seemed otherwise lost.

While recognizing familiar songs may seem almost automatic, the brain has to do a lot of work in order to make those mental connections happen. Computing the structural relationships between one note and the next requires the brain to reach across both hemispheres, building white matter. Whether pop, R&B, or classical, hearing music affects multiple areas of the brain at once, making an impact on your mood while improving your brain’s plasticity.

If listening to music is a mental warm-up, playing music is a mental workout. Learning how to play certain songs becomes part of the brain’s procedural memory, an area of the brain that is among the most resistant to decline.

Similar to learning how to ride a bike or brush your teeth, physicalized musical connections, such as certain chord shapes on the guitar or notes on the piano, are retained in areas of the brain that are relatively insulated from dementia.

Techniques to try

Whether you’re dusting off an old instrument from high school band or vowing to practice playing music more often, there are a few techniques you can use to maximize the benefits of this cognitive exercise.

1. Learn how to play new songs

New music challenges the brain in a way that familiar music can’t. Try adding new songs into your repertoire, and for an extra boost, set aside some time to listen to and learn music you’ve never heard before. Ask your children or grandchildren what they’re listening to, and learn how to play along.

2. Play songs from older generations

Exposure to musical learning improves recall in the areas of the brain associated with both short and long-term memory. Listening to a song from a specific moment in your life (for instance, a song from your wedding, or childhood) stimulates the brain’s memory centers.

3. Listen to your body’s reaction

The music that soothes one person might be grating to another. If certain chord progressions or tempos make you feel jumpy or anxious, take note. You don’t have to avoid them entirely, but they may be counterproductive when it comes to focusing on the music.

4. Practice in sections

Chunking, or blocking out smaller sections to focus on, isn’t just for CEOs like Elon Musk. It’s also a proven way to learn how to play music as an adult. Practicing in small segments, like working measure by measure, makes learning music more digestible. It also builds muscle memory and can improve your overall musicality in time.

5. Play what you like

Learning how to play music as an adult improves the brain’s plasticity. The best way to stick with a practice routine? Play the songs you like. Enjoying playing an instrument makes you more likely to do it more often, building up your cognitive abilities.

Ready to add playing music into your routine? Check out 30 more daily habits of healthy, productive people, and see how playing music can improve your mental agility, dexterity, and longevity.