How crying can improve your mental, physical, and emotional health
What's the story
Crying is a natural response triggered by a range of emotions, including sadness, grief, joy, and frustration. However, it is often considered a form of weakness. As a result, many try to suppress their tears. But doing so could mean missing out on its various benefits. From enhancing your mood to helping you sleep better, here are the five benefits tears can offer.
PNS
Soothes your mind
Crying is a healthy coping mechanism to relieve pain. It creates a self-soothing effect on our minds. When you cry, your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) gets activated. The PNS helps your body relax and reduce stress. The self-soothing benefits of crying may not show up immediately. It might take you a few minutes of shedding tears for you to feel its soothing effects.
Brain's temperature
Improves mood
Crying is a great mood enhancer. It may help uplift your spirits and make you feel better. When you cry your brain releases "feel-good" chemicals - oxytocin and endorphins. These chemicals help improve your mood. While sobbing, you inhale short, quick spurts of cool air, which helps in regulating your brain's temperature. Consequently, your mood experiences a positive lift following a bout of sobbing.
Stress reliever
Relieves stress and releases toxins
When we cry, we release a number of stress hormones and other toxins through tears. So, that helps in reducing the levels of these chemicals in the body, which in turn helps in reducing stress. Crying also eliminates toxins out of your system, and clears debris, like smoke or dust, from your eyes. However, more research is required to solidify these findings
Eyesight
Enhances vision
The tears that your eyes release whenever you cry, help to keep your eyes moist and lubricated. It also prevents your mucous membrane from drying out. The mucous membrane helps keep your vision sharp. When it dries out, your vision becomes blurry. Blinking triggers the release of tears, ensuring ongoing eye hydration and thereby averting dryness.
Sleep
Helps sleep better
A 2015 study found that babies sleep better after crying. Whether it has the same effect on adults is yet to be researched. However, when you let your emotions out via crying, it relieves your stress and pain and makes you feel better, as mentioned before. So, when you feel light, it becomes easier for you to sleep.