If you spend an unreasonable amount of time online, you shouldn’t feel too guilty if the content you’re consuming is humorous and genuinely making you chuckle aloud. There’s a reason for this.
Frequent laughter has strong, positive effects on your physical and mental health. It can even provide unexpected social benefits.
Speaking purely about the physical side of things, laughter can:
- Boost your immune system
- Decrease pain
- Lower stress hormones in your body
- Relax your muscles
- Give your abs a workout
- Reduce the risk of heart disease
In terms of mental health benefits, laughter tends to ease anxiety and tension, relieve stress, improve your mood, and strengthen your resilience.
Socially, laughing frequently is a boon, too. It can help you strengthen your relationships, forge new connections, and defuse conflict when needed. In short, it supports bonding within your social group and makes you a stronger team.
And, from a purely subjective perspective, having a good laugh with quality people is just plain fun!
The Stanford School of Medicine emphasizes that laughter should not be dismissed as something trivial.
Among all the other benefits we’ve already mentioned, laughter can also reduce insomnia and improve your memory.
Cortisol, the stress hormone, can damage the area of your brain responsible for learning and memory, your hippocampus.
So, because laughter reduces cortisol levels, your hippocampus ends up healthier, leading to better memory. That, in turn, leads to a higher-quality life.
The cool thing is that you don’t have to laugh ‘naturally’ to reap many of the benefits. If you force yourself to laugh, faking it regardless of whether or not you hear a funny joke, you’re improving your health, too.
Meanwhile, if you’re surrounded by people who are laughing, you often join in thanks to the mirror neurons in your brain.
