What happens when we laugh? Our brain produces a festive cocktail of hormones, DOSE. DOSE is an abbreviation for dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. When we laugh, we get a rush of DOSE into our brains. When we laugh, our bodies feel better, and even our brains think clearer. You may also realize that you sleep better when you have a good laugh than on other nights.
In this episode, I will be seeking to help you understand the essence of the four hormones produced when we laugh. Also, I will give you a chance to laugh with me and trigger the hormones.
Key Talking Points of the Episode:
[01:28]Â What does dopamine do?
 [01:58] The hormone that increases trust, oxytocin
[02:38] The calm hormone serotonin
[03:33] The endorphins
[04:55] Laugh with me and give your brain a DOSE
What did you learn from this episode?
If you enjoyed this episode, you should 100%Â listen to the founder of laughter yoga Madan Kataria talking to the laughter man.
If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please contact Pete here.
Follow Pete at:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelaughterman/
- https://www.instagram.com/petecannthelaughterman/
- https://www.facebook.com/thelaughterman
- https://www.youtube.com/c/petecannthelaughterman
- https://www.tiktok.com/@petecannthelaughterman
- https://clubhousedb.com/user/thelaughterman
Transcript
Pete Cann 00:09
Hello, I’m Pete Cann, laughter leader, positive thinker, and entrepreneur, and you’re listening to laughter and positivity with Pete. Each week, I’ll bring you tips and tricks to lead a happier, more positive life. Ready? Let’s go. Hey, hey, hey, hey, it’s laughter and positivity with Pete, and it’s another one of those solo episodes this week where I wanted to talk to you about the chemical releases we get when we laugh. Now, for the last sort of a couple of years, I’ve been talking about the endorphins release, which are our happy hormones. But actually, something I read up on not too long ago was telling me all about a joyful cocktail that we get. And we get a DOSE. DOSE being really, really important because it’s the abbreviation is that the right word for dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. So, when we laugh, we get a rush of, we get a DOSE basically into our brains. I want to share with you just the power of all of these chemicals and what they have on our brain. So, DOSE, our D for doses dopamine and dopamine is our reward hormone. Now when I say reward hormone, it beats it basically makes us feel good. So, when we get our dopamine spike, it helps us with acceleration, helps us feel blissful, It helps us to feel motivated, helps us to concentrate, helps us with movement, and also helps us with learning. So that’s the reward hormone dopamine. So that’s the first chemical we get released into our brain when we laugh. The second one is oxytocin, which is known as the love hormone, also known to increase trust. So, when we get an oxytocin boost, it helps us with bonding, helps with arousal, helps us to trust, it also helps us with communication skills, helps to anti-stress as an anti-stress hormone, as well as self-esteem. So, when we get the oxytocin spike, it helps with all of these things. And I know that actually when I have a full laughter session that, I get a feeling of contentment with people, which is really, really interesting. So that must be the oxytocin that comes through. And then S is for serotonin, which is a calm hormone which is for wellbeing and happiness. So serotonin helps us with the following; It helps us with our mood, helps with a sense of wellbeing, helps us with our appetite, and also helps us with sleep and with memory. So what’s interesting with this one is when I say about serotonin, with sleep, there’s one that will again, when run full laughter sessions with people, I often ask them to let me know or I speak to them the following day. And I say, how do you sleep last night after you we had our laughter session? And they always say always, always say they had the best night’s sleep ever. Because again, we’re releasing all of these positive chemicals into our brain, which ultimately releases us and re-relieves us of all of any tension that’s flying around. And then the E in DOSE is endorphins, which, again is the feelings of euphoria and pleasure. So like when we get a runner’s high, that’s when you get a spike of endorphins. So this helps with releasing stress, relieving pain, and the feeling of euphoria and with pleasure. So yeah, with the endorphin side of things, it again, it’s a stress release it, it’s when we’re feeling stressed and uptight and maybe anxious as well. Actually, laughter is a really, really, really good way of reducing this pressure. And this morning is a typical example; when I did my 10 minutes of laughter, I was feeling a little bit stressed out because of a few things that are going on in my personal life at the moment. And I sort of did this laughter session my 10 minutes on clubhouse and actually obviously released my dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and my endorphins, and actually made myself feel more content, more happier, more focused on what I need to do today, and actually reduced any stress and strains that I had. So, it’s really, really good for us, and that’s what happens with our brains with the chemicals when we laugh. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this week’s episode. I’m going to finish off with a little laugh just to get that little spike of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. So we’re going to take a deep breath in. We’re going to let our long ah, Am I going to take a deep breath in? I’m going to laugh for 10 seconds.
Or maybe a little bit more than 10 seconds. You can hear from my voice that I’ve got a smile on my face. And I just love the fact that this is what we can do with laughter; we can set our intentions, we can set our moods by laughing. So again, I’m going to just take a nice deep breath in and just relax. I know I’ve just had a dose in my brain of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. Fantastic. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little bit of knowledge about laughter today. Don’t forget to join us next week for an interview, and hope you have a fantastic week. Whatever you’re doing, remember to laugh.
Thank you so much for listening to laughter and positivity with Peter. To access today’s show notes and exclusive content, please head over to https://petecann.com/podcast/. Be sure to tune in next week for your next dose of laughter and positivity. Until then, remember, if Pete Can, you can!