Laughing improves our mood, relieves stress and makes us feel relaxed and good.
Statistics say that seventeen is the number of average laughs in an adult person throughout the day, while children laugh much more often.
As far as we know, humans are only living beings that have the capability of laughing!
Laughing is a physiological response that includes at least fifteen facial muscles, respiratory system, limbic system of the brain and sometimes the lacrimal glands.
It is scientifically proven that laughing positively affects numerous body processes, lowers the risk of cardiac arrest, supports antibodies production and many more. Thanks to the frontal cortex functions, our brain detects funny situations.
Our limbic system detects primal emotions and reactions, such as those of fear and hunger. Scientists found it also affects laughing.
When we laugh, we actually express our emotions about something that appears funny to us. Why is that so? Why we find certain situations funny? The answer is not completely clear and psychologists have different theories about it.
The theory of discrepancy says that we laugh when a situation changes the course of our expectations. Humor and laughing as a response kind of embody the awkwardness of a situation.
The theory of superiority claims others’ mistakes make us laugh, since we are not affected by the situation ourselves, but we feel superior over someone who failed at something. The best illustration is laughing while watching funny home videos or so.
The relief theory says laughter loosens stress, make us feel relieved and generally help us deal better with a stressful situation.
For example, it often happens people laugh in solemn situations and then wonder why they react so. They do know that the situation was not funny and, yet, they laugh.
The best example is when someone laughs at a funeral. It is not because he or she disrespects the whole event, but because their brain tries to find relief.
Laughing in dream
Perhaps you do not know if you laugh aloud when you dream about something funny, but you have probably heard someone else laughing. Laughter occurring while being asleep is not a strange phenomenon.
Most commonly, it is a dreamer’s response to something funny or pleasant in a dream itself. It is a common physical reaction in waking life and so it is when sleeping.
Many times people do not know if they were laughing, until someone else told them so. You do not even have to remember the dream.
It also happens people cannot recall dreaming of anything particularly funny or pleasing, but someone tells them they were laughing. All of this is completely normal.
Laughing in a dream is considered a good thing, unless it wakes you up often and badly affects your sleeping pattern.
Dreams about laughter
Whether you laugh aloud while you are asleep or not, dreams about laughing carry various meanings. The symbolism and meaning of such a dream depends on the situation in the dream.
It depends on whether the dreamer was the one to laugh or it was someone else. It is different, of course, if you or another person were laughing at something/someone or enjoying something pleasant or funny.
Was it a hysterical, panic type of laughter or a relieving, pleasant one? Were you also crying?
We will talk about the most common scenarios of dreams in which laughter is a dominant motif.
Try to recall all the details, especially your emotions regarding the laughter in your dream. The true meaning of a dream always lies in details.
Dreams about laughing
The meaning of this dream greatly varies. One interpretation says this dream has exactly the opposite meaning of that expected.
Laughter is most commonly a response to something funny, but not bad.
However, this interpretation says the dream actually reverses your actual emotions. It indicates you would probably be very angry at something or someone in your waking life.
Of course, it does not have to be that way. If you are simply laughing, without any particular object of your laughter, the dream means you need a channel and a relief from worries that bother you in reality.
Maybe you really lack more laughter in your life. People who are obsessed with their responsibilities, work, problems and everything that is considered serious often ‘forget’ how to laugh.
Laughing in a dream reminds you how good and positive and healing laugher could be.
On the other hand, this dream suggests you are feeling relaxed in general. Laughing in your dream reflects your actual feelings in reality.
Maybe you have not yet realized you have all reason to feel joyful in waking life, but the dream suggests you will very soon find it out.
Dreams about laughing at something or someone
If you dream about laughing at someone or at something another person is responsible of, someone else’s creation or so, this is not a good dream.
It means you need others to fail, in order for you to feel good. It reflects vanity, greed, jealousy and all kinds of negative emotions. It greatly depends on who were you laughing at.
If you dream about laughing at someone that you consciously do not think anything bad of, the dream reveals your deepest emotions about that person.
Most probably, you are jealous of something they have, even f it was a person you love. You secretly wish if they fail, instead of doing your best to be better yourself.
This is a wrong way of thinking and the dream is a good reminder. You should seriously ask yourself why you would laugh at someone dear to you.
If you laugh at someone who could be considered your enemy, the meaning is clear; you really wish them to fail.
However, it also reflects your insecurity. You actually think you cannot beat them.
You give them too much importance and fill your soul with hatred and greed, instead focusing on your own qualities and improving them.
Dreaming about laughing at something that appears funny to you (a situation, an object, a phenomenon or else) just means you need some relief in life.
You need something to laugh at, because you are tense and in need of a channel.
Grab a comedy movie, call a friend, read a humoristic book or just do anything that relaxes you. You have to realize life is full of funny things, not only of solemn and obliging ones.
Dreams about making someone else laugh
This is an incredibly positive dream. It means you are capable of making people around you feel comfortable and safe.
You are willing to help other people; sometimes a joke could mean a lot to another person.
This dream indicates you are about to brighten up someone’s day and it should make you feel good.
Alternatively, this dream has opposite meaning. It could mean you will face worries and problems.
Think about details. Think about how you made another person laughing. If you made him or her laughing at someone else, an innocent person, it is not a good thing. Think about how you felt about the dream, in the first place.
Dreams about laughing and crying at the same time
This dream possibly indicates your deeply suppressed need to relax, take a break and laugh aloud. Your mind, soul and the whole body scream for a good laughter on the inside.
This dream means you have too many suppressed emotions inside, good and bad, mixed up. The dream suggests you should let them go.
Do not let them pile up inside you, because it leads to outburst and breakdown.
Dreams in which one is laughing and crying at the same time are also dreams of great relief.
It means your mind and soul have finally got to a conclusion of a situation that has been bothering a dreamer for long. You should feel relieved upon waking up.
On the other hand, this dream reflects emotional confusion. You are uncertain about how you feel about something in your waking life.
The dream serves as a channel to your confused emotions. Laughing and crying at the same time appears strange, but it often reflects the feeling of helplessness.
We do not talk about the phenomenon of tears occurring because a person is laughing so hard, but about actual crying.
This dream also reflects acceptance of a situation one cannot do much about.
Dreams about someone else laughing
Dreams in which another person laughs could have numerous meaning. If you simply see a person laughing, it is a good thing.
It means you are surrounded by people who emit good vibes, have positive attitude towards life, are optimistic and easygoing.
If you see your loved ones laughing, it means they are fine and happy, especially if the subject of their laughter is just a mutual joke or they pleasantly laugh while talking.
If you dream about others laughing at you, it is a negative one. It suggests you either feel ashamed because of something you have said and done or you are insecure in front of others.
You worry too much about what others would think of you.
The dream also indicates hidden enemies, false friends and generally toxic environment for you.
However, the main problem is that you let them laugh at you and make you feel less important.