Tears are thought of as many things, but primarily they are assumed to be reactions to negative emotions. When most people see crying, they assume that it is a negative response, and when the emotions calm down, the crying will stop. However, research indicates that this may not be the case. In fact, crying may have some underlying properties to it that indicate the ability to handle stress for longer and recover quickly from stress and sadness. Crying actually has the capability of helping the body maintain homeostasis, while holding back tears disrupts regulation of the body. Studies have shown that just prior to crying, the heart rate slows, and post-crying, the heart rate returns to its baseline. This indicates that crying is incredibly useful as a way for the body to soothe itself and cope with the stressor.
This approach to crying, especially in stressful times, is extremely important because it places an importance on allowing physical responses deemed to be negative as actually an important bodily effect. In stressful, difficult times, perhaps it is best to allow people to cry because it helps them retain homeostasis. Even more importantly, the response from crying happens without awareness, so when people are stressed and cry, it is an unconscious reaction to regulate. Perhaps, then, people who are crying should be deemed as more stable than those who do not. In the research, individuals who did not cry did not have the same type of stabilizing impacts. This is a twist as people who do not cry would commonly be deemed in more control, but it seems those who do cry are able to self-regulate more effectively. Crying is an outwardly sign of inner strength as it illustrates a completely comfortable relationship with the self. So cry a little, you just might feel better.
Sharman, L. S., Dingle, G. A., Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., & Vanman, E. J. (2020). Using crying to cope: Physiological responses to stress following tears of sadness. Emotion, 20(7), 1279–1291. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000633
I have always heard that a “good cry” can alleviate stress, thank you so much for sharing! I find it interesting that crying out of distress is purely a uniquely human behavior. You don’t see foxes crying after not obtaining their prey or racoons shedding tears on a cold day. According to many veterinary studies, no animal has been found to produce tears as humans do (Gracanin et.al, 2018). However, it's interesting that when humans cry the tears in a way blind us from seeing our environment. In a study they looked at how pupils compensate for this blurred vision and found that in fact the pupil does constrict to compensate for the lack of vision (Küster, 2018). Odd that our body is physically trying to counteract crying. Is our body okay with short periods of crying to lubricate our eyes and calm us down - but maybe not okay with ten minute weeping sessions to the movie “The Blind Side”? Food for thought!
ReplyDeleteGracanin, Asmir, et al. "Why Only Humans Shed Emotional Tears." Human Nature, vol. 29, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 104+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A538032054/AONE?u=regis&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=a22d0636. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
Küster D. (2018). Social Effects of Tears and Small Pupils Are Mediated by Felt Sadness: An Evolutionary View. Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior, 16(1), 1474704918761104. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704918761104
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ReplyDeleteKatie that is an excellent observation of the evolutionary abilities of humans compared to that of other species. However, even with constriction of the pupil, the body is still eliciting the parasympathetic nervous system. As when we sleep, studies suggest pupil constriction during NREM episodes may be significant in the stability of deep sleep. Perhaps our body is not counteracting crying at all but is providing a coordinated effort to stabilize and maintain homeostasis in face of the stressor we are threatened by. During sleep, we are completely blinded from our environment while it compensates from exhaustion. We are not wired to constantly be on flight taking note of everything displayed in our environment. We must rest and digest too. This certainly is an interesting study and I hope more research avails itself on how the pupils compensate for the lack of vision.
ReplyDeleteYüzgeç Ö, Prsa M, Zimmermann R, Huber D. Pupil Size Coupling to Cortical States Protects the Stability of Deep Sleep via Parasympathetic Modulation. Curr Biol. 2018 Feb 5;28(3):392-400.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.12.049. Epub 2018 Jan 18. PMID: 29358069; PMCID: PMC5807087.