It may sound funny, but one of the simplest antidotes to stress may be laughter.

Why would that be funny? Because it’s so easy to access, yet laughter may be one of the last things we resort to when feeling overwhelmed. Instead, many of us will fall into problem-solving or fix-it mode, which can typically feel more serious or heavy and can sometimes perpetuate stress.

Laughter and humor, on the other hand, have been found to reduce cortisol levels by up to 40%.

Cortisol is, of course, the hormone that gets released when we sense or experience stress. It essentially regulates the body’s response to stressors so that we can stay alive or manage day-to-day pressures and worries and still function.

Cortisol is also released as part of a circadian rhythm, or a natural process that takes place in the body regardless of external factors, and tends to be at its highest levels in the morning when we first wake up. This phenomenon is called the cortisol awakening response (CAR), which when functioning normally contributes to a roughly 40-75% increase in cortisol levels within the first hour of awakening.

While researchers are still not 100% sure of the CAR’s biological necessity, a certain amount of cortisol released every day is natural—it’s likely what helps us get up and do what we need to do everyday.

However, if too much cortisol is being released in the body due to heightened stress responses or persistent and chronic stress, then we can start to experience negative side effects such as weight gain, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, anxiety, as well as difficulty sleeping and/or concentrating.

This is where laughter can come in.

A recent systematic research review published in Plos One looked at eight studies examining the effects of laughter on cortisol levels and found that, on average, laughter interventions contributed to a 31.9% reduction in cortisol levels among study participants compared to control groups. In other words, increasing opportunities to laugh can be a powerful way to help combat stress.

“Our results support the ancient knowledge that spontaneous laughter is in fact good medicine (preventive or therapeutic), being associated with greater reduction in cortisol levels as compared with usual activities,” the study authors wrote in the conclusion to their study. “These analyses demonstrated the potential therapeutic role of laughter-inducing interventions as a complementary strategy to improve everyone’s wellbeing and highlight the need for further research aiming to improve our collective sense of humor.”

Not only can laughter help reduce stress, but research has also linked it to positive health effects such as increased pain tolerance, lower heart attack risk, improved cognitive function, decreased inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis and more.

Laughter Yoga

If you’re short on ways to find humor, a structured and intentional way to incorporate more laughter into your life is through laughter yoga, an exercise program that combines laughter exercises with yoga breathing techniques to stimulate the health effects of humor.

The program was developed by Indian physician Dr. Madan Kataria in 1995 and allows participants to access the benefits of laughter “on command and demand” without relying on external conditions. So you can basically fake it till you make it.

This is because, as Dr. Kataria found out through his research, the brain doesn’t know the difference between pretend laughter and genuine laughter. All it senses is that we’re laughing, so we can get the same health benefits whether we’re laughing at a funny joke or by making ourselves laugh.

To help get people laughing on their own, or without an external prompt, Dr. Kataria came up with different laughing exercises like cellphone laughter, which involves pretending to laugh while talking on the phone, or milkshake laughter, which involves using your hands to pour an invisible milkshake between two glasses while laughing.

The exercises also include playful elements, like clapping and shaking one’s hands, to help stimulate childlike joy, which can also contribute to long-term health benefits.

Laughing with others, even if it’s just an instructor or leader, can also increase social connection and encourage even more laughter because it’s contagious.

So, the next time you’re feeling down or stressed, see if you can make yourself laugh or try a laughter yoga video on YouTube. There’s plenty of available examples and exercises, including the below from Judith Anne Walker, a laughter yoga group leader from Edinburgh who probably makes the best selling point for laughter yoga: “We just laugh for no reason because laughter feels good.”

Additional Takes on the Health Benefits of Laughter

“Why Laughter Is Such Good Medicine” via Psychology Today

“The Healing Benefits of Humor and Laughter” via the Department of Veterans Affairs (This one is worth the read if only for the included corny jokes.)

“The health benefits of humor” via the Mayo Clinic