How the act of humming could help boost your health and happiness

ILLUSTRATIONS: KATHRIN LANG

Humming might be one of the simplest and most soothing sounds that human beings can make. It’s a behaviour that often begins in childhood, with toddlers humming along to their favourite songs or nursery rhymes. As adults, people use humming for everything from passing the time in a supermarket-checkout queue or filling in the words they don’t know to a song to making a ‘hmmmmmm’ sound while they’re thinking, considering a problem or having a conversation.

Forms of humming have also been used for many hundreds of years as part of the spiritual practices or breathing exercises of several belief systems. Now, researchers are discovering that humming isn’t simply a noise that humans make – it can play a huge role in health and wellbeing by triggering the parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers stress and anxiety and aids relaxation. Humming is a powerful and accessible self-soothing tool, and one of the most beautiful things about it is that you don’t have to be able to sing, harmonise or even hold a tune to reap the benefits.

In short, humming is a wordless tone that people can make with the mouth closed, forcing the sound to emerge through the nose. It might feel like the vibration is coming from the throat, but if you try humming while pinching your nose, you’ll quickly discover that you can’t. Sometimes, people hum with a melody – perhaps to a song or tune – but therapeutic humming is usually done in a monotone. The sound is created by the resonance of air in the various passages of the head, nose and throat. Scientists believe that the earliest humans probably used humming as a form of soothing communication. For many social animals, silence can be a sign of danger, while gentle noises such as humming can signal that all is well and the community is relaxed.