I’ve always valued the role of humor in my most cherished relationships and in the way I process adversity. Come to think of it, my love of laughter even creeps itself into my everyday speech. When referencing a good time, I might say, “We had a lot of laughs.” When explaining why I love talking to a person, I may tell you, “She gets the joke.” While I don’t consider myself particularly funny, humor is key to my sense of joy (and to maintaining my sanity.) For this reason, I was happy to oblige when recently asked to dig into the research on humor and health. I’m excited to share a bit of what I found and offer some action items as well.
Physiologically, laughter improves mood by raising our “feel good” hormones serotonin and dopamine, and decreases our experience of pain by releasing endorphins, our bodies’ natural opioids. It lowers our levels of the stress hormone cortisol and boosts immune function by raising levels of our antibodies and natural killer cells (immune cells that destroy infected and cancerous cells.) Laughter is thought to improve cardiovascular function by causing relaxation of the lining of our blood vessels, improving the flow of oxygenated blood. One study even found a link between sense of humor and longevity, showing a decreased risk of death from all causes in women and death from infection in men with higher scores in the cognitive component of humor. (1)
In terms of cognitive processing, research shows that laughter is associated with improved creativity and problem-solving. In fact, one study showed that college students who were asked to solve word association puzzles following a funny video were more likely to solve them than those who watched a scary or boring video beforehand. Furthermore, they were significantly more likely to solve them by sudden insight compared to an analytical approach. Other studies looking at brain imaging illustrate that cognitive humor and insight problem solving seem to originate in the same area of the brain, with humor having the ability to “prime” this area for insight problem solving. (2) This makes sense, given that we need to remain mentally spacious, relying on our looser connections to both identify the incongruent elements in a situation (aka “get the joke”) and have our best insights or “Aha!” moments.
Whether you want to focus on the data that having laughter in your life strengthens your immune system or that it may lead to your next epiphany, at the end of the day, it’s clear: laughter makes us happy. And always remember, happy people are healthy people. So what’s the call to action this month? Lean into the things that bring us levity! They are different for all of us but we know what ours are. Have dinner with a friend who cracks us up. Watch an old Seinfeld. Or maybe we start keeping a better lookout for the small laughs in our daily lives; the things we miss while preoccupied. For instance, I recently asked my five-year-old why he wasn’t wearing underwear and he told me “It’s complicated.” I am still laughing. Does it get more basic than wearing underwear? Thank God I was present for this memorable one-liner!
Perhaps the most important strategy is to laugh at ourselves and unwind how seriously we take everything. In this way, humor serves as a form of spirituality by reminding us that things aren’t as dire as they seem and we aren’t as important as we once thought. There’s a much bigger Universe out there and we aren’t the center of it. Isn’t that refreshing and doesn’t it take the pressure off? I feel better already! Have a great month, my friends and please remember to lighten up!
Addendum: I wrote the majority of this article sitting in the Las Vegas airport. If you are absolutely out of material, please spend some time here. ;)
References:
1. Romundstad, S., Svebak, S., Holen, A., & Holmen, J. (2016). A 15-year follow-up study of sense of humor and causes of mortality: The nord-trøndelag health study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 78(3), 345–353. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000275
2. Carey, Benedict. “Tracing the Spark of Creative Problem Solving.” The New York Times, December 6, 2010.