What does Qawwali Listening do to the body?
During calmer listening, the body tends to downshift: pooled music-listening trials measure heart rate falling by roughly three to four beats per minute and systolic blood pressure by about five points, changes many people feel as the chest settling and the breath lengthening on its own (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke et al., 2016). These readings come from music research in heart and cancer patients rather than from qawwali, and breathing slows in the same direction during quieter passages. Qawwali complicates the picture, though, because its build toward ecstatic peaks is designed to raise arousal, so heart rate and breathing can quicken first and settle only afterward. The calming shifts are modest, and the more direct measure of heart-rate variability, the beat-to-beat flexibility that tracks recovery, has been inconsistent across studies (Thoma et al., 2013).
Heart Rate
direct EVIDENCE
When stress leaves your heart racing, slower and calmer music listening is linked with a small, measurable drop in heart rate, the number of times your heart beats each minute, which many people feel as the chest settling and the body easing out of high alert (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke et al., 2016). Qawwali complicates this, since its build toward ecstatic peaks can quicken the pulse first, before the settling that tends to follow.
Respiratory Rate
direct EVIDENCE
During the slow, calmer passages, many listeners feel the breath lengthen on its own, with less effort to draw air in and a settling that seems to arrive before you try to relax. That felt change tracks respiratory rate, how many breaths you take each minute, which has been measured lower in pooled trials of music for heart and cancer patients (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke et al., 2016). During Qawwali's building, ecstatic peaks the pattern can move the other way, toward faster, more activated breathing.
Blood Pressure
direct EVIDENCE
During Qawwali's slow, contemplative opening, many listeners feel the body loosen, shoulders dropping and breath slowing on its own. Pooled music-listening trials link this settling with a small dip in systolic blood pressure, the force of blood pushing against artery walls, of about 5 mmHg, though the reading can rise again as the performance climbs toward its more activating peaks (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke et al., 2016).
Sympathovagal Balance
moderate EVIDENCE
When you feel wound up, calming music listening can let the chest loosen and the breath slow as the body tilts toward rest, a change in sympathovagal balance, the ratio between the body's stress branch and its rest-and-recovery branch. Pooled trials show small drops in heart rate and blood pressure (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke et al., 2016), though Qawwali's building intensity carries stretches of arousal, so the settling tends to come in waves rather than all at once.
Sympathetic Tone
moderate EVIDENCE
During the slow, calm passages, many listeners feel a slower pulse and a loosening in the chest and shoulders as sympathetic tone, the body's fight-or-flight arousal, tends to settle; pooled music studies measured small drops in heart rate and blood pressure (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke et al., 2016). As Qawwali builds toward its ecstatic peaks, that arousal can briefly lift again before the body settles.
