Researchers tell us that when we suffer from depression, laughter might actually help alleviate our mental state. When I struggled with depression postpartum, one of my doctors recommended that I watch funny movies.
I remember feeling angry. I thought to myself, "if it's so darned easy I expect I would be feeling better right now."
I was right and I was wrong.
There is nothing easy about recovering from depression. This website is about nutrients and depression, but nutrients are one often missing part of a complex picture. Laughter is another.
In June a study was published relating a mom's laughter to the melatonin levels in her breast milk. Melatonin is a hormone that helps us sleep. When we laugh we increase our serotonin levels which, in turn, raises our levels of melatonin. Nature puts that sleep hormone into our milk and baby sleeps much better.
Many women who suffer from postpartum depression have babies who do not sleep well. Babies may have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. They may take many, many months to "sleep through the night."
I have assumed that it is the lack of sleep from a more-difficult-than-average baby that aggravates a mom's mental status postpartum. Sleepless babies make us crazy. And they surely don't help. But this study suggests that a mom's mental status also affects baby's sleep. The poor get poorer.
Go Shopping
Whether you are lactating or not, get some funny material to put around you. You don't have to be producing milk to benefit from a serotonin boost.
Here are my shopping picks:
* Classic episodes of Johnny Carson
* Ellen DeGeneres (Stand up and the daytime show)
* Anything with Redd Foxx
One problem with the shopping strategy is that when you're in the pits, the last thing you are going to do is go out and buy a funny video. Buy it when you're feeling well and watch it regularly, even if you don't "need" it. We all need to laugh more. We all need it, all the time.
If someone in your life "needs" it, just incorporate it into your relationship with them. Watch funny stuff together. Don't tell them about the studies. They won't believe you anyway. Just try to build a little more laughter in your life and it will probably help your family and friends too.
