Sometimes all you can do is laugh. That might actually be good for you

Laughter May Offer a Real Boost When Life Feels Overwhelming

Activelifezero.com – When the headlines are bleak and daily pressures seem relentless, laughing can feel almost inappropriate. Yet a genuine burst of laughter may be one of the simplest ways to interrupt stress, reconnect with other people and give the body a brief reset.

For one father, the comedy is often close to home. His sons spent their teenage years secretly recording his most embarrassing moments: struggling with a mattress held above his head before walking into a wall, or getting caught grooming nose hairs before work. Now that the sons are in college, the family still returns to the footage for impromptu screenings of Dad’s awkward “greatest hits.” Even when everyone knows the next clip, the laughter somehow keeps growing.

That kind of shared humor can be especially welcome amid deeply divisive politics, prolonged wars in Ukraine and Iran, mounting living costs and the alarming consequences of climate change. Laughter cannot resolve those problems, but it may make people feel less crushed by them for a while.

A physical response, not merely an emotional one

A hard laugh involves much more than a cheerful mood. It expands the chest, encourages deeper breathing and can increase oxygen intake. It also stimulates circulation. Chemical changes associated with laughter can help the inner lining of blood vessels relax, supporting better blood flow.

Comedian Craig Shoemaker described the sensation before a performance in Atlanta, comparing a vigorous laugh to exercise.

“You’re pumping blood, your lungs are expanded. Everything happens when you’re laughing. It’s as good as a workout!”

The comparison should not be taken as a replacement for regular physical activity or medical care. Still, it captures why laughter can leave someone feeling energized, warm and physically relieved. A night at a comedy club may end with sore cheeks, but it can also produce an unmistakable sense of release.

What Research Suggests About Stress

Dr. Caroline Kramer, an endocrinologist, examined the potential connection between spontaneous laughter and the body’s stress response. Her team reviewed eight small, short-term studies carried out from 1989 through 2021. The review found that laughter was associated with an approximately 30% drop in cortisol, a hormone that rises during stress.

Kramer is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a clinician scientist at Mount Sinai’s Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes. She said the findings from the team’s 2023 work on laughter and stress were clearer than she had expected.

“Even 10 minutes of laughter can reduce cortisol significantly.”

“Our results were of greater importance than I thought they would be.”

The evidence does not mean laughter is a cure for anxiety, depression, chronic illness or the circumstances causing someone’s stress. The studies were limited in size and duration. But the findings point to a useful idea: small moments that improve well-being can have measurable effects, even when they do not resemble traditional treatment.

That can be difficult to accept in a culture accustomed to searching for a pill, procedure or highly structured program for every health concern. Kramer noted that people often focus on research outcomes such as survival, hospital stays or other clinical measures while discounting interventions that simply help people feel better.

“I think overall people tend to undermine interventions that just increase well-being.”

Shoemaker offered a more comic explanation for why laughter receives less attention than other wellness strategies.

“It’s so important to our wellness, and yet we completely dismiss it, because laughter doesn’t have a lobby.”

Humor Works Best When It Is Shared

Not every laugh needs to come from a comedy club. It may arrive through a friend’s badly timed joke, a funny memory, a family ritual or a colleague who sees the absurdity in an ordinary workday. Those moments can do more than lighten the room. They can remind people that they are not carrying life’s difficulties alone.

Shoemaker built a career around that connection. In the 1990s, he created the Lovemaster, a bold and smooth-talking character who delivered extravagant relationship advice and pickup lines in a deep, theatrical voice. He has said that audience members sometimes credited the character with changing their romantic lives, including a Michigan couple who thanked him after being told they could not have a child.

The story reflects the unusual power of comedy: people may walk in seeking entertainment and leave with a memory they connect to intimacy, hope or resilience. Humor does not erase hardship, but it can alter the emotional space around it.

Making Room for a Laugh

For people under sustained pressure, seeking laughter does not have to mean forcing cheerfulness or pretending that painful events do not matter. It can mean making room for a favorite comedian, revisiting a ridiculous family video, sharing an inside joke or spending time with someone whose presence makes it easier to breathe.

There is wisdom in the old observation from Proverbs 17:22 that a cheerful heart can be good medicine. A quote often associated with Lord Byron makes a similar point: laughter is inexpensive medicine. Modern research does not turn either line into a prescription, but it does suggest that the instinct behind them may have substance.

Sometimes the world offers no immediate solution, only another impossible headline or another exhausting day. In those moments, a laugh may not fix what is wrong. It can, however, briefly soften stress, move the body, strengthen a connection and make the next difficult moment feel a little more manageable.