When people sing, their body releases two stress-related chemicals in saliva—oxytocin and cortisol—but these two don’t go up or down together, which means your body controls them separately, even though they’re both linked to stress.

When people sing, their oxytocin (a feel-good hormone) goes up, and they tend to feel better—but their stress hormone (cortisol) doesn’t seem to change much, so maybe oxytocin is the real reason singing makes us happier.

When people sing together in a choir for 20 minutes, their body’s oxytocin levels drop—unlike when they sing alone, where levels stay the same. This surprises scientists because they thought group activities like this always boost oxytocin, the ‘bonding hormone.’

Singing for 20 minutes—whether alone or in a group—lowers your stress hormones, and singing with others lowers them even more, which means singing itself helps calm your body, no matter if you're alone or with people.

Whether you sing alone or with others, singing might help lower your stress hormones — so it’s the singing itself, not who you’re with, that could be calming your body.

When people sing, their body produces less of the stress hormone cortisol, which might help them feel calmer.