Music is a powerful tool; it can help unlock our memories and take us back to happy times in our lives. This is something that can be especially important for people who suffer from dementia and for their loved ones.
Playlist for Life (https://www.playlistforlife.org.uk) is a charity created with an aim to help dementia sufferers through music. Having become aware of the beneficial properties of music on our brains, it aims to get everyone to set up their own personal playlist of music that will trigger good emotions and memories.
These personal playlists can sometimes help to ease suffering or, simply via sharing the experience of listening to music together, can give something to bond over and perhaps help to turn what can be a difficult moment with someone suffering with dementia into an easier experience. They can be invaluable.
At Slough Libraries and Culture we will soon be acting as a help point for Playlist for Life, but in the meantime we would love everyone to set up their own personal playlists.
It’s worth noting that playlists are not just for people with dementia; anyone can set up their personal playlist and enjoy reliving and sharing the memories and connections! This can be a great thing to do even right now to help us through our current social isolation.
What is a playlist?
Playlists can be any length and can be all kinds of music. Whatever music you feel a personal connection to or that has marked a happy experience in your life can work. You might use pop music, classical music, film or tv scores and themes, advert jingles, rhymes... anything with a tune can be a part of your playlist.
It’s your own playlist, so use anything that is personal to you. The music should trigger positive emotions when heard and if it gives you a connection to a personal experience or relationship it can help keep those memories fresh.
The Playlist for Life site has a lot of great resources and advice for finding your own music for your playlist; it’s a great place to start and to get more information from:
You can also look at their dedicated Spotify profile (playlistdementia) which has many pre-made playlists to browse through and to help track down music by different categories and time periods. This can be particularly helpful in finding the right music if you are trying to set up a playlist for someone already suffering with dementia.
We hope you enjoy setting up your playlists and listening to them!