Music for people with dementia

Music has many positive effects on people with dementia. It can reduce pain and anxiety, improve quality of sleep, and help preserve a sense of identity. ‘Unfortunately, as dementia progresses, even simple tasks such as switching on a radio and listening to music become increasingly difficult,’ says Rik Wesselink.  

To help with this, the scientist, who defended his doctoral thesis at the UT in December, came up with a new design that can enrich the lives of people with dementia – by helping them gain access to their favourite music.

Better design

On top of his PhD research, Wesselink works as a teacher and researcher in Zwolle focusing on IT innovation in health. As such, he was involved in a project on social robots for people with dementia, during which he saw their many daily challenges.  

‘This was the first time I saw that people with dementia had so many problems using simple products, such as radios or TV sets.’ Part of the problems lies in inconsiderate design, he says. ‘Many of them have an unnecessarily difficult interface, especially for people with dementia.’

Dementia patients often forget the order in which to complete tasks, explains Wesselink. For example, while getting dressed in the morning, they might put on shoes but forget to put on socks first. Because of this difficulty with task order, listening to music becomes a challenge for them. ‘It requires too many steps – they’d first need to switch on the music player, then select the right music, and then press play. That’s three steps already, and they might not remember in which order and why to take them.’

Through this experience, Wesselink realised that a better design could significantly improve the quality of lives of people with dementia. He began his research focused on designing more accessible products for them, using ‘access to music’ as a design case.

Role of music

The researcher worked directly with people with dementia. He gave them assignments to better understand what role music plays in their daily life, what their needs are, and what issues they run into. He found that they considered music to be very important and pleasurable, but hardly listened to it.

‘They grew up with record players and were used to spending a lot of time listening to music, but many of them couldn’t listen to music anymore on their own,’ says Wesselink. ‘Some of them didn’t know how to switch on the radio anymore, and some had to ask their partner for help.’

This issue could be avoided by designing products with a more flexible interface, he adds. ‘The products should have enough functionality, but also be simple to use. For instance, it shouldn’t matter which button you press first. If you want to listen, you should just be able to press any button, and it starts playing.’

Surprisingly, the looks of the product were also important. ‘Even designs for people with dementia should be aesthetically pleasing,’ says Wesselink. ‘For example, there are dedicated phones for people with dementia. They are very simplistic and have big buttons with pictures. This is stigmatising, because using such a phone in public screams 'I’m disabled'. It’s important to remember that just because it is practical, it doesn’t mean they will want to use it.’

Loss of initiative

‘Another problem is the fact that people with dementia experience a loss of initiative,’ continues the researcher. ‘They don’t think of switching on the TV or radio. They even risk dehydration because they don’t take the initiative to get a glass of water if they are thirsty. This is an important problem, and something I focussed on in my work. Because if people don’t take the initiative to use your product, it doesn't matter how the product works.’

To address this loss of initiative, Wesselink searched for ways to ‘nudge’ people into listening to music more. ‘In design, you can steer someone towards certain behaviour,’ he says. ‘If you walk past a bakery and smell fresh bread, it might encourage you to eat. If the elevators are in plain sight but the staircase is hidden, you are encouraged to take the elevator.’

Using this knowledge, the researcher came up with a new design principle which he calls ‘inviting’. ‘It is a subtle way to remind someone to use a product. In the case of a music player, the product might light up when you walk past it. It might make faint sounds or even automatically start playing music at a low volume.’

Positive response

Wesselink tested this principle and his music player with people with dementia, and he found their reactions to be very positive. ‘They listened to music more and they still felt in control. They felt like it was their own decision to listen to the music, that it wasn’t just an automatic reminder.’

‘Despite the positive response, it is hard to say what the exact impact will be,’ adds Wesselink. ‘However, we know that listening to music can help reduce pain, calm people down, and bring joy. Music activates many areas in the brain. It can help improve speech and it brings up memories, helping to maintain the person’s sense of identity. I firmly believe that there is a lot of potential in using music to improve quality of life.’

The main goal of the PhD research was to add knowledge to design for the dementia domain, and to develop better products for people. Rik Wesselink hopes, however, that his design principles will be used in practice. He even aims to acquire a grant to further develop his music player, which he made during the doctoral research.

‘I hope others will use the insights from my work to design their own products for people with dementia. If we continue and can develop a real product, I’ll accomplish another goal – finding an actual solution that can help.’