Laughter is like "internal jogging" for your system. It's anaesthetic, anti-depressant and even burns calories. Here's how to get more of that "cheap medicine"

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

One member of the A/UK team has been terrorising his family and colleagues with regrettable, clunky jokes. It’s no empirical sample, but we are guessing - and we bet our social media is registering - that there’s an avid search for laughable moments, as the pandemic grinds on.

From Psyche, here’s a very good case for inducing more laughter in your life:

In the film Mary Poppins (1964), Uncle Albert extols the benefits of laughter in his song ‘I Love to Laugh’: ‘The more I laugh/the more I fill with glee/And the more the glee/The more I’m a merrier me!’

As a gelotologist – someone who studies laughter (not ice cream!) – I know he was on to something. Laughing is one of the best things you can do to cheer yourself up. So much so that I actively make a habit to laugh regularly – and I think you should, too.

For starters, laughter can benefit your physical wellbeing. The American psychologist William Fry, the father of gelotology, referred to laughter as ‘internal jogging’ for good reason: a recent study found that it had a similar effect as exercise on heart rate and heart-rate variability. Other physiological benefits of laughter include an enhanced immune system, muscle relaxation, and reduced blood pressure.

One study of nearly 21,000 older adults found that those who laughed every day were less likely to have heart disease, compared with those who never or almost never laughed (although this study was cross-sectional, so it might be that healthier people are more likely to laugh regularly in the first place).

In a study of individuals with Type 2 diabetes, those who watched a comedy film (rather than a boring lecture) showed decreased levels of prorenin in their blood, a protein involved in the onset of diabetic complications. And if you’re ever in physical pain, laughing might help: watching funny videos can increase your pain tolerance.

There are also benefits for psychological health and personal development. When you laugh, your brain releases mood-boosting chemicals, including endorphins, and fewer stress hormones – so laughing can reduce feelings of stress and symptoms of depression, and help you cope in challenging environments.

Laughter can also improve sleep quality, increaseself-esteem and creative thinking, and provide an environment that enhances learning. All that considered, we’d be wise to follow the words of the poet Lord Byron: ‘Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.’

You might be thinking that all this sounds promising, but you just don’t have much opportunity to laugh in your own life. You’re not alone: one study of adults in the United States found that, on average, people laughed about 18 times a day, but that number varied between 0 and 89. 

Another study, of adults aged 65 and older in Japan, found that most laughed several times a week or every day – but 18.8 per cent reported laughing fewer than four times a month. If that sounds like you, don’t worry. The good news is that you don’t have to wait for laughter to appear in your life.

Most of us think of laughter as a spontaneous reaction to something funny, but that’s not always the case. Just think about babies – they don’t need jokes to laugh, and neither do we. Humour can certainly make us laugh, and laughing can make things humorous.

But based on my own research and others’, it’s clear that they can occur separately too – and laughter without humour can still make you feel happy. The upshot is that we don’t need to wait for something funny to happen before we can experience the benefits of laughter.

There’s also a misconception that you need to be around other people to have a giggle. Laughter often is a social behaviour – we are 30 times more likely to laugh with someone else than when we’re alone.

The British cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott describes it as a ‘social emotion’, and it often acts as a social lubricant, increasing bonding and feelings of intimacy. But you don’t actually need the other people – it’s perfectly possible to laugh when you’re alone, and still experience laughter’s benefits.

If you want a quick way to cheer yourself up, laughter is the ideal medicine. It’s healthy, free, quick and easy. You don’t need to buy any equipment or join any clubs, and you can do it almost anywhere (although funerals are not recommended – unless you’re watching Mr Bean’s ‘Funeral’ episode).

And unlike other vices we might reach for in times of stress, there are no calories (in fact, laughter burns them), it’s low risk, and it’s legal. Sounds like an easy choice, right?

More here. The author, Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky, then suggests a number of concrete ways to bring more laughter into your life: enjoy laughing at humour alone, train your own comedy skills, laugh with others using humour, laugh with others without humour. And the article concludes with more research and learning behind her points.

We will conclude, however, with some of those appalling A/UK team member jokes, which may or may not induce the desired effect:

I once painted a huge graffiti rainbow on a local wall in our town. Got caught by the authorities and spent two months in prism.

Did you know that people want three covers on their bed at all times? That’s just a blanket statement.

Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused anesthetic during a root canal? His goal was to transcend dental medication.

I wanted to watch the World Origami Championships tonight, but unfortunately it was on paper view.

Jokes about white sugar are rare. Jokes about brown sugar…? Demerara.

Feel better now? No?