If you want to communicate with someone from across the globe who speaks a different language, all you have to do is laugh. Laughter is a form of communication that’s universally recognized, which suggests it has deep importance to humankind.
It's thought that laughter may have occurred before humans could speak as a playful way for mothers and infants to communicate, as a form of play vocalization, or to strengthen group bonds. Even today our brains are wired to prime us to smile or laugh when we hear others laughing.
Yet, laughter is a largely involuntary response; it’s not generally something you can force yourself to do. Instead, laughter is thought to be triggered by mechanisms in your brain and impacts breathing patterns, facial expressions, and even the muscles in your arms and legs.
It plays a role in your health, too, and has many quirks and mysteries that make it one of the most fascinating physical reactions that a human (and certain other species) can make.
* Some scientists believe that laughter was used as a way for humans to relate to one another millions of years before they developed the lung strength for language. The mechanism of laughter is so ingrained in our brains that babies as young as 17 days old have been observed doing it. In fact, children born blind and deaf still have the ability to laugh.
* Laughter is actually rarely tied to humor
In his book, Laughing: A Scientific Investigation, Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, describes an intriguing study about laughter—and it didn't take place at a comedy club. Provine and some graduate students listened in on normal conversations at local malls. They found that out of 1,200 "laugh episodes," only about 10 percent were generated by a joke. "Laughter really has a bonding function between individuals in a group," says Provine.
* Rats and monkeys laugh
It may sound strange, but several scientists have elicited "tickle-induced vocalizations" from primates. Penny Paterson, president of the Gorilla Foundation says that Koko, the gorilla famous for her sign language abilities, even had a special "ho, ho," for visitors she liked. And rats apparently have very ticklish necks. When Bowling Green State University scientist Jaak Panksepp and his graduate students tickled baby rats' napes, the rodents emitted high-frequency chirps that Panksepp interpreted as laughter.
* Couples who laugh together, stay together
Robert Levinson, psychology professor at the University of California Berkeley, invited couples into his lab and asked each partner to discuss something that irritated him or her about the other partner. The couples who tackled the stressful situation with laughter not only felt better in the moment, but had higher levels of relationship satisfaction and stayed together longer than couples who didn't crack a smile.
* Laughter controls our brains
When you see people laughing, you just can't help but smile, right? That's because your brain makes it nearly impossible not to. That's the result of research from the lab of Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at University College London. When she monitored subjects' brains while she played laughing sounds, she found that the premotor cortical region of the brain, which prepares the muscles in the face to move, was activated.
* Laughing burns more calories than you may think
No joke! Just 10 to 15 minutes of laughing a day can burn up to 40 calories, according to a Vanderbilt University study. Researchers determined that the increase in heart rate and oxygen consumption during these funny moments boosted the burn.
* Laughter really is the best medicine
Study after study has pointed to the health benefits of laughter: Research from Loma Linda University showed that laughing improved the memory of adults in their 60s and 70s; University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers found that hilarious movies improved the function of blood vessels and increased blood flow in a group of 20 thirty-somethings. And other research has shown that laughing can improve immunity, help regulate blood sugar levels, and improve sleep.
* Your sense of humor might be genetic
In a Northwestern University study of more than 300 people, those with the short version, or allele, of gene 5-HTTLPR are quicker to laugh at cartoons or funny movie clips than those with the long version of the gene. That particular gene has long been associated with the study of depression, but this is the first study to look at its connection to positive emotions. "People with short alleles may flourish in a positive environment and suffer in a negative one," said study co-auothor Claudia M. Haase. "While people with long alleles are less sensitive to environmental conditions."
* We laugh up to 30 times more when we are in the company of others than when we are by ourselves. When they say that laughter is contagious, they were really right!
* Frequent and whole-hearted laughter actually helps your body to fight off harmful diseases. By altering the levels of cortisol in your body, laughing lowers our levels of stress and fights off things that might be harmful to us.
* Although we can force smiles and trick our brains into thinking we are happy, we cannot actually force laughter. You can emit something that sounds a lot like laughter, but you are not tricking your brain whatsoever (and you’re probably not tricking those around you either!)
* Laughing is a pretty good workout! When you laugh, you are strengthening muscles in your face, stomach, and diaphragm. It’s no substitute for the gym, but a bit of laughter does the body good!
* Some studies have reported that laughing for at least fifteen minutes can add around 2 days to your overall lifespan. Live long and…laugh!
* Not a coffee drinker? That’s okay! Laughing shortly after you wake up can have similar effects to drinking a cup of coffee. Next time you laugh right after getting up, notice how refreshing it feels.
* Believe it or not, there really is a science to laughing. In fact, the science of laughing and it’s effects on the body is referred to as Gelotology.
* Humans are not the only beings that laugh. Although less obvious to detect, many animals also experience something similar to laughter. Start watching out for your furry friends – turns out, they might actually be laughing at you after all.
* In studies that looked at laughter in adults versus children, it was found that kids tend to laugh about three times more than adults. Think like a kid and learn to enjoy yourself a little!
* The average person laughs around 13 times a day. Oddly enough, very few of those times are due to a joke or an intentional action. More often, we laugh at chance happenings or things that were never intended to be funny in the first place.
* Laughing can create an instant bond between individuals. When you laugh as a group or with someone else, we feel a natural connection to those people and it can alleviate some of the social stress that being around new people might create.
* Just as children laugh more than adults, surveys have shown that women tend to laugh slightly more than their male counterparts. Maybe women are really the ones with the senses of humor!
* Studies show that while individuals usually rank “appearance” as very high on their list when looking for a mate, we tend to find individuals who laugh more attractive.
* Laughter really is contagious. Ever wonder why television shows often play a “laugh track” after a funny moment? Even when we do not see where the source of the laughter is, simply hearing laughter can be contagious.
* Rats Laugh When They’re Tickled
Rats laugh when they’re tickled, and the more they play together, the more they laugh. Psychologist Jack Panksepp first observed laughing rats in the 1990s; he needed special equipment to hear it, as rats’ laughs are very high pitched.
* Your Brain Can Detect Fake Laughter
Professor Scott’s research has shown that your brain can tell the difference between real or staged laughter. When you hear staged, or deliberate, laughter, it prompts more activity in your brain’s anterior medial prefrontal cortex, which helps you understand other people’s emotions. This suggests your brain automatically goes to work deciphering why someone is deliberately laughing.
* Jokes Are Funnier if You Know the Comedian
Familiarity is a key part of humor and laughter, and research shows people find jokes told by famous comedians to be funnier than the same joke told by someone they’re not familiar with.
* Laughing Is Good for Your Relationships
Research shows that couples who use laughter and smile when discussing a touchy subject feel better in the immediacy and report higher levels of satisfaction in their relationship. They also tend to stay together longer.
* Some Things Can Make Virtually Everyone Laugh
While there’s no one joke that makes everyone laugh, Professor Scott found that one of the best tools for making people laugh in her lab is a clip of people trying not to laugh in a situation where it would be highly inappropriate to do so.
* Laughter Is Good for Your Memory Too
Researchers at California's Loma Linda University looked into the role that humor can have on your health. They broke 20 older adults into two groups – one that watched funny videos and one that sat silently for 20 minutes. Before and after the session, both groups took a short-term memory test…The humor group showed significantly more improvement on the test, 43.6 percent compared to 20 percent in the non-humor group.5 Those in the humor group also had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. According to the researchers, laughter represents an enjoyable tool to help counteract age-related memory decline in older adults:
“The study's findings suggest that humor can have clinical benefits and rehabilitative implications and can be implemented in programs that support whole-person wellness for older adults. Learning ability and delayed recall are important to these individuals for a better quality of life--considering mind, body, spirit, social, and economic aspects. Older adults may have age-associated memory deficiencies. However, medical practitioners now can offer positive, enjoyable, and beneficial humor therapies to improve these deficiencies.”
* Laughter Enhances Immunity, Improves Sleep, and More
What else is laughter good for? Research has shown laughter may reduce stress hormones and boost your immune function,6 while also inducing optimistic feelings.7 Laughter has demonstrated a wealth of physiological, psychological, social, spiritual, and quality-of-life benefits, such that increasing numbers of health care centers are adopting laughter therapy as a form of complementary care. Opportunities that provide for group laughter, such as laughter yoga and laugh parties, are also becoming increasingly popular around the world. Just a short list of the benefits of laughter therapy are noted below:
-Relaxing your muscles
-Triggering the release of your body's natural painkillers (endorphins)
-Improving sleep
-Enhancing creativity and memory
-Easing digestion
-Enhancing oxygen intake
-Improving well-being and positive emotions
-Boosting immune function
-Improving blood pressure.
* A healthy laughter can help you to reduce pain and prevent infections.
* It has been seen that there is a considerable drop in the levels of stress hormones after a good laughing session.
* It helps in releasing endorphins which can bring positive changes to the mindset of a person.
* A heavy laughter brings in much more oxygen to the lungs than normal breathing would do.
* Laughter reduces the risk of heart diseases!
* Laughing has been the cause for death for many people.
* If you have felt exhausted after a bout of belly laughs, it’s because your body responded to laughter in the same way it does to a workout. Your blood pressure decreases while at the same time vascular blood flow and in oxygenation of the blood increases –this assists healing. Laughter also gives your diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles a workout.
* Laughter isn’t always linked to something funny. Many use laughter as a way to cope with high-stress situations while others use it to thwart nervousness. It’s been shown to be a be a social tool for bonding and it’s something that can connect us across cultures. By the way, it’s extremely contagious, so even in situations that are not funny we can get people to laugh simply by laughing. Laughing makes us more human.
* Researchers noted that men found women more attractive when they were smiling or laughing. It allows natural beauty to shine through and gives a glimpse into the soul –nothing is more beautiful than a genuine soul.
* It’s thought by some researchers that our sense of humor may be genetic. There is a gene associated with depression. Those who have this gene are more sensitive to negative environments, yet that same gene has been shown to reveal that those same people are equally as sensitive to positive environments. Like mother like daughter when it comes to sense of humor, says science.
* Employees who are seen laughing or smiling are thought to be more satisfied or capable and thus are more likely to get a promotion. Laughing is an indicator of confidence, something that all bosses want in a rising star. It could also indicate someone who manages stress well, another bonus for you. So, go ahead and laugh your way up to the top.
* In a poll about what partners are looking for, one of the consistent responses was a sense of humor. Even online dating profiles site a sense of humor as a coveted trait, even more than education, intelligence, profession, or sex drive. If you’re looking to boost attractive points all you gotta do is laugh more.
* Laughing catches people’s attention. It can make you seem more approachable and carefree. When smiles and laughs are shared, relationships can grow. And seeing as laughter is contagious, it can make others feel better too, which makes you an alluring and attractive person to be around.
* We’ve heard that when cortisol levels are high, the belly is more likely to store fat. When we laugh, we release endorphins which, in turn, reduces the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is more present when we feel stressed and/or anxious –it is directly related to hostile feelings we experience, and by lowering it we can reduce these negative feelings. There is no guarantee that you’ll get a six-pack, but at the very least you can reduce some belly fat.
* Often times, we forget that a good laugh can cure many things –from a bad mood to a heartbreak, but on a serious medical-level laughter is also highly praised. Laughter has been known to boost immunity, regulate blood sugar, and improve sleeping patterns. Next time you want to feel healthy, have a good laugh –it as good as, if not better, than most medicine on the market.
* “The same pleasure sensors in the brain that are activated when we eat chocolate become active when we find something funny,” says Weems. “It’s a natural high.” In fact, a 2003 brain-scan study published in the journal Neuron found that the dopamine reward centers and pathways in the brains of subjects lit up when they were treated to a funny cartoon, but not when they were shown an unfunny version.
So laff alright if you want to laugh, but do it moderately, you want to know why? Its because there are People Who Literally Died From Laughing Too Hard.
Here is a link of a long list of them courtesy Stella Dimokorkorkus blog...
http://www.stelladimokokorkus.com/2017/12/people-who-literally-died-from-laughing.html
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