HAVE A BAWL

Turns out sobbing is a science. As research reveals the mood-boosting benefits of bawling, WH finds out why there’s more to crying than meets the eye…

The science of sobbing.

Why it’s good to let it all out

Whenwas the last time you had a good cry? And we’re not talking a solitary tear running down your cheek at a soppy advert - we’re talking runny-nosed, blotchy-faced, final scene of The Notebook bawling. If you have to pause for thought, it’s probably been too long, because, according to new research, crying is a bona fide strategy for lifting your mood. A recent study, published in the journal Motivation And Emotion, examined both the immediate and delayed effect of crying on mood by monitoring participants while they watched two emotionally charged films. As expected, the moods of the weepers dipped in the minutes after the credits rolled but, 90 minutes later, they reported better moods than before they started watching. Meanwhile, the moods of the steely noncriers didn’t change. So, if you’ve ever had that cleansing feeling that comes once the tissue box is empty and your tears are dry, you’re not alone. According to clinical psychologist Dr Ad Vingerhoets of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, around 50% of people report feeling happier post-cry. WHY SO SAD? To figure out why that is, it’s handy to understand what actually goes on in your body when you cry. ‘Emotional tears originate from the lacrimal gland, located above the eyes,’ say Dr Vingerhoets. ‘They are * triggered by certain nerves, especially parasympathetic nerves, that originate from the limbic system in the brain, which controls emotions.’ And if you’re wondering why you well up over a soppy advert while the bloke next to you on the sofa has zero emotional reaction, there’s a reason for that, too – and it isn’t because he’s a robot. ‘People often assume that female sex hormones are responsible for the fact that adult women cry more often than adult males,’ says Dr Vingerhoets. ‘But there is actually stronger evidence that male sex hormones (in particular, testosterone) have an inhibiting influence on crying. Prolactin (a bonding hormone) might also lower the female crying threshold. More research is required, but it could explain why some women are likely to weep after giving birth, and why some cry when they orgasm.’ Crying while you come? Sure. HAVING A BAWL So why does this physiological reaction, so often triggered by negative emotions, actually end up making you feel good? Beyond the idea of purging your body of pent-up emotions, researchers have been trying to find a scientific explanation for that sense of catharsis for decades. One researcher – biochemist Dr William Frey – claimed to have discovered the answer when his study found that, while nonemotional tears (you know, from chopped onions, strong winds and the like) were 98% water, the emotional kind contained stress hormones, meaning that crying purged them from the body. But not everyone is convinced. ‘The amount of stress hormones in tears is negligible,’ says Dr Vingerhoets. ‘Also, saliva contains stress hormones, too, but we don’t expect to feel better after drooling.’ The science of sobbing is made all the more difficult to decipher when you consider that making someone cry in a lab is just as likely to leave them feeling embarrassed as it is cleansed. In a 2008 study*, researchers pointed out that the mere fact that participants were weeping in front of strangers, and being filmed, inevitably led to negative feelings, which were likely to neutralise any mood-boosting benefits. Dr Asmir Gračanin, who authored the sad film study, thinks the reason crying makes you feel better is simply because feelings of sadness don’t last forever, and feeling ‘normal’ post-cry tricks you into thinking you feel better than you did before. But Dr Vingerhoets isn’t so sure. ‘Crying could also be linked to the stimulation of the production of oxytocin. But until now, no studies have focused solely on this issue.’ CRY ME A RIVER Mood-boosting aside, crying can also be good for you from a social point of view. Early humans used tears to let others know they were in distress and to encourage people to help them. That still holds true for us non-cave folk – one study* found that people felt more empathy when looking at a photo of a crying face than they did when looking at the same picture with the tears digitally removed. Why? Well, it’s the oxytocin again. It’s another bonding hormone, and it makes you feel closer to the person whose shoulder you’ve been sobbing on. ‘How bystanders react to your cry is a major determinant of how you will feel after a crying episode,’ Dr Vingerhoets adds. ‘When someone reacts with comfort and understanding, it’s obviously a different story than when they react with anger or ridicule. This suggests that it isn’t the crying that makes you feel better necessarily, but rather the reactions of others.’ In Japan, some people have taken the theory of ‘tears as social lubricant’ one step further by founding crying clubs. The phenomenon – known as ‘ruikatsu’ (tear-seeking) – involves adults coming together to watch tear-jerking films and cry en masse as a way of relieving stress. So, next time you get the squad over for a weepy film night, you can consider yourself bang on trend.

STRESS HORMONES ARE CONTAINED IN SOME TEARS