Laughter is said to be the “best medicine,” but is laughing truly good for you? It offers physical and mental health benefits, as physical and mental health affect each other. An emerging body of research shows that laughter can improve your overall health, well-being, and life satisfaction.
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1. Improves Overall Well-Being
Laughteris beneficial for general wellness. It can boost many areas of life. For example, research shows that laughter yoga can improve physical and mental health, sleep, and social function, all of which are measures of living well.
Laughing can also shift youremotionsand thoughts. It can affect your interactions with other people, choices, and behaviors, changing the course of your day.
Laughter can improve your mental health, personal development, pain, stress, and immune system, all contributing to your overall wellness.
2. Boosts Mental Health
People who find humor throughout daily life are more likely to experience joy. Laughter can be a form ofself-care. Some people engage in laughter therapy to reduce stress and depression.It doesn’t even have to be a formal intervention. Simply talking and laughing with a friend or family member can lighten the mood, brighten your day, and lead to feelings of connectedness and companionship.
If you find it difficult to laugh or find joy in your day-to-day life, it may be a warning sign of a serious mental health condition, such asdepression. If you or someone you know feels this way, contact a trusted healthcare provider for support.
3. Aids in Personal Development
Laughter can contribute to your personal development. Research has shown that laughter and emotions such as joy can improveself-esteem, motivation, and learning.When you feelconfidentand motivated, your mind is more open to learning skills and developing habits that will lead to personal growth.
4. Reduces Pain
While you feel pain throughout your body, your brain is responsible for processing pain. Laughter releases chemicals in the brain that counteract pain signals. Sincepaincan significantly impact your quality of life, laughter and the reduction of physical pain can increase life satisfaction and overall well-being.
5. Relieves Stress
The body produces cortisol, the stress hormone. Research shows that laughter therapy improvescortisoland perceived stress levels, meaning that laughter can reduce physical and mental stress. Improving both measures is important because stress perception is related to quality of life, while the physical stress response is linked to physical health.
While the body and mind can manage short-term stress,chronic stresscan lead to a variety of physical and mental health concerns. Reducing stress levels through laughter can decrease the risks of these adverse effects.
6. Benefits the Immune System
Your emotions andimmune systemare intertwined. Feelings like anger, anxiety, and stress can disrupt immune function, and an activated nervous system can increase excessive inflammation (a key part of the immune response) throughout the body.
Conversely, laughter, joy, and happiness can reduce stress, promoterelaxation, and create an environment for proper immune system function. Laughter can help moderate the immune system, providing a boost or calming effect based on what is needed, bringing the mind and body back to homeostasis (balance among body systems).
Are There Any Downsides to Laughter?
There is a low risk of harm associated with laughter. Many people laugh daily through social interactions and other life experiences. The downsides of laughter are typically not a concern unless you have an underlying condition that worsens when you laugh, such as asthma.
Rarely, it can lead to complications such asasthmaattacks, headaches, and abdominalhernia(a bulge in the abdominal wall that can allow contents inside the abdomen to protrude through it).
The greater physical, mental, and social risks exist among people who don’t laugh enough.
How to Laugh More
You can try watching stand-up comedy or listening to funny podcasts to laugh more, but research shows that laughter is a social experience. One study found that people are 30 times more likely to laugh in social settings than alone. Some would say it’s contagious. If you want to infuse more laughter into your daily life, try the following:
Summary
If you feel you could benefit from more laughter, try to incorporate more of it into your day. You can get silly with a friend, consume funny content, go to a comedy show, or find a laughter therapy option that works for you, such as laughter yoga.
10 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Hwang SH, Jeong HC, Hwang JW.Effect of laughter therapy on healthy life: a meta-analysis.Journal of the Korea Convergence Society. 2019;10(9):291-299. doi:10.15207/JKCS.2019.10.9.291Yazdani M, Esmaeilzadeh M, Pahlavanzadeh S, Khaledi F.The effect of laughter Yoga on general health among nursing students.Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2014;19(1):36-40. PMID: 24554958Yim J.Therapeutic benefits of laughter in mental health: a theoretical review.Tohoku J Exp Med. 2016;239(3):243-249. doi:10.1620/tjem.239.243National Institute of Mental Health.Depression.Savage BM, Lujan HL, Thipparthi RR, DiCarlo SE.Humor, laughter, learning, and health! A brief review.Advances in Physiology Education. 2017;41(3):341-347. doi:10.1152/advan.00030.2017Moon H, Journ S, Lee S.Effect of laughter therapy on mood disturbances, pain, and burnout in terminally ill cancer patients and family caregivers.Cancer Nurs. 2024;47(1):3-11. doi:10.1097/NCC.0000000000001162van der Wal CN, Kok RN.Laughter-inducing therapies: systematic review and meta-analysis.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;232:473-488. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.018Brod S, Rattazzi L, Piras G, D’Acquisto F.‘As above, so below’ examining the interplay between emotion and the immune system.Immunology. 2014;143(3):311-318. doi:10.1111/imm.12341Ferner RE, Aronson JK.Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical investigation of risibility, therapeutic and harmful): narrative synthesis.BMJ. 2013;347(dec12 3):f7274-f7274. doi:10.1136/bmj.f7274Scott SK, Lavan N, Chen S, McGettigan C.The social life of laughter.Trends Cogn Sci. 2014;18(12):618-20. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.09.002
10 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Hwang SH, Jeong HC, Hwang JW.Effect of laughter therapy on healthy life: a meta-analysis.Journal of the Korea Convergence Society. 2019;10(9):291-299. doi:10.15207/JKCS.2019.10.9.291Yazdani M, Esmaeilzadeh M, Pahlavanzadeh S, Khaledi F.The effect of laughter Yoga on general health among nursing students.Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2014;19(1):36-40. PMID: 24554958Yim J.Therapeutic benefits of laughter in mental health: a theoretical review.Tohoku J Exp Med. 2016;239(3):243-249. doi:10.1620/tjem.239.243National Institute of Mental Health.Depression.Savage BM, Lujan HL, Thipparthi RR, DiCarlo SE.Humor, laughter, learning, and health! A brief review.Advances in Physiology Education. 2017;41(3):341-347. doi:10.1152/advan.00030.2017Moon H, Journ S, Lee S.Effect of laughter therapy on mood disturbances, pain, and burnout in terminally ill cancer patients and family caregivers.Cancer Nurs. 2024;47(1):3-11. doi:10.1097/NCC.0000000000001162van der Wal CN, Kok RN.Laughter-inducing therapies: systematic review and meta-analysis.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;232:473-488. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.018Brod S, Rattazzi L, Piras G, D’Acquisto F.‘As above, so below’ examining the interplay between emotion and the immune system.Immunology. 2014;143(3):311-318. doi:10.1111/imm.12341Ferner RE, Aronson JK.Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical investigation of risibility, therapeutic and harmful): narrative synthesis.BMJ. 2013;347(dec12 3):f7274-f7274. doi:10.1136/bmj.f7274Scott SK, Lavan N, Chen S, McGettigan C.The social life of laughter.Trends Cogn Sci. 2014;18(12):618-20. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.09.002
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Hwang SH, Jeong HC, Hwang JW.Effect of laughter therapy on healthy life: a meta-analysis.Journal of the Korea Convergence Society. 2019;10(9):291-299. doi:10.15207/JKCS.2019.10.9.291Yazdani M, Esmaeilzadeh M, Pahlavanzadeh S, Khaledi F.The effect of laughter Yoga on general health among nursing students.Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2014;19(1):36-40. PMID: 24554958Yim J.Therapeutic benefits of laughter in mental health: a theoretical review.Tohoku J Exp Med. 2016;239(3):243-249. doi:10.1620/tjem.239.243National Institute of Mental Health.Depression.Savage BM, Lujan HL, Thipparthi RR, DiCarlo SE.Humor, laughter, learning, and health! A brief review.Advances in Physiology Education. 2017;41(3):341-347. doi:10.1152/advan.00030.2017Moon H, Journ S, Lee S.Effect of laughter therapy on mood disturbances, pain, and burnout in terminally ill cancer patients and family caregivers.Cancer Nurs. 2024;47(1):3-11. doi:10.1097/NCC.0000000000001162van der Wal CN, Kok RN.Laughter-inducing therapies: systematic review and meta-analysis.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;232:473-488. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.018Brod S, Rattazzi L, Piras G, D’Acquisto F.‘As above, so below’ examining the interplay between emotion and the immune system.Immunology. 2014;143(3):311-318. doi:10.1111/imm.12341Ferner RE, Aronson JK.Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical investigation of risibility, therapeutic and harmful): narrative synthesis.BMJ. 2013;347(dec12 3):f7274-f7274. doi:10.1136/bmj.f7274Scott SK, Lavan N, Chen S, McGettigan C.The social life of laughter.Trends Cogn Sci. 2014;18(12):618-20. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.09.002
Hwang SH, Jeong HC, Hwang JW.Effect of laughter therapy on healthy life: a meta-analysis.Journal of the Korea Convergence Society. 2019;10(9):291-299. doi:10.15207/JKCS.2019.10.9.291
Yazdani M, Esmaeilzadeh M, Pahlavanzadeh S, Khaledi F.The effect of laughter Yoga on general health among nursing students.Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2014;19(1):36-40. PMID: 24554958
Yim J.Therapeutic benefits of laughter in mental health: a theoretical review.Tohoku J Exp Med. 2016;239(3):243-249. doi:10.1620/tjem.239.243
National Institute of Mental Health.Depression.
Savage BM, Lujan HL, Thipparthi RR, DiCarlo SE.Humor, laughter, learning, and health! A brief review.Advances in Physiology Education. 2017;41(3):341-347. doi:10.1152/advan.00030.2017
Moon H, Journ S, Lee S.Effect of laughter therapy on mood disturbances, pain, and burnout in terminally ill cancer patients and family caregivers.Cancer Nurs. 2024;47(1):3-11. doi:10.1097/NCC.0000000000001162
van der Wal CN, Kok RN.Laughter-inducing therapies: systematic review and meta-analysis.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;232:473-488. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.018
Brod S, Rattazzi L, Piras G, D’Acquisto F.‘As above, so below’ examining the interplay between emotion and the immune system.Immunology. 2014;143(3):311-318. doi:10.1111/imm.12341
Ferner RE, Aronson JK.Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical investigation of risibility, therapeutic and harmful): narrative synthesis.BMJ. 2013;347(dec12 3):f7274-f7274. doi:10.1136/bmj.f7274
Scott SK, Lavan N, Chen S, McGettigan C.The social life of laughter.Trends Cogn Sci. 2014;18(12):618-20. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.09.002
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