Nervous Laughter: Causes, Psychology, Tips, And More - Healthline

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HealthlineSubscribeWhat Causes Nervous Laughter?

Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT — Written by Tim Jewell — Updated on May 31, 2023

Why we nervous laugh
Medical causes
How to stop it
Treatments
When to talk with a doctor
Takeaway

Nervous laughter may be your brain’s way of dealing with negative emotions or events. It may also be a symptom of an underlying condition. Therapy may help if you find nervous laughter disrupts your life or relationships.

You probably know the feeling: You’re in a tense situation and suddenly feel an insanely powerful urge to laugh.

Don’t worry, you’re not strange for doing this — it’s a phenomenon called nervous laughter.

Nervous laughter is called an incongruous emotion. This means that you experience an emotion when the situation doesn’t necessarily call for it.

Nervous laughter happens for a number of reasons. Some research suggests that your body uses this sort of mechanism to regulate emotion. Other research has found that nervous laughter may be a defense mechanism against emotions that may make us feel uncomfortable.

Either way, it’s pretty weird to experience. Uncontrollable nervous laughter may also be a symptom of an underlying condition.

Why do we laugh when we are nervous?

Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted one of the earliest and most infamous studies with data about nervous laughter in the 1960s.

His study revealed that people often laughed nervously in uncomfortable situations. People in his study were asked to give electric shocks to a stranger, with the shocks becoming increasingly powerful (up to 450 volts).

But the “strangers” in this case were researchers involved in the study — they weren’t actually being shocked. But participants were more likely to laugh at the violence of the situation the higher the volts went.

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran explored this idea in his book “A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness.” He proposes that laughter first appeared in human history to indicate to those around us that whatever made us laugh wasn’t a threat or worth worrying about.

Ramachandran also suggested that laughter helps us heal from trauma by distracting ourselves from the pain and associating that pain with positive emotion. This could be why nervous laughter can happen even at funerals or other sad and traumatic events.

A newer 2019 research also suggests that laughter or mirth is a way for us to reduce fear, anxiety, or stress. The researchers theorize that mirth can help us turn off a negative reaction to uncomfortable or illogical things we encounter.

A 2015 study from a team of Yale researchers also found that people tend to respond with a variety of unexpected emotions in response to strong outside stimuli.

The researchers discovered an association between the strong emotions you feel when you see a cute baby, like wanting to pinch its cheek and speak to it in weird voices, and the urge to laugh when you’re nervous or anxious.

So nervous laughter may also just be part of a larger pattern within the brain to react with strong emotions of all sorts to emotionally provocative stimuli, no matter if it seems appropriate.

Medical causes

Uncontrollable laughter that seems like nervous laughter could also result from an underlying medical condition.

Here are a few of the most common possible causes of nervous laughter.

Pseudobulbar affect

Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) happens when you have episodes of strong emotions that aren’t necessarily appropriate for the situation. Aside from these brief episodes of strong emotion, your mood and emotions tend to be just fine.

Imagine someone telling a joke that you didn’t find funny. But you start bursting out in loud, raucous laughter anyway — this is one possible way that PBA can manifest.

This symptom is linked to conditions that affect your brain like a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or a neurological disorder like multiple sclerosis (MS).

Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism happens when your thyroid gland makes too much of one or both thyroid hormones called T4 and T3. These hormones regulate your cells’ energy use and maintain your metabolism. Nervous laughter can be a symptom of hyperthyroidism in some cases.

Autoimmune conditions like Graves’ disease are the most common causes of hyperthyroidism. Some other possible causes include:

consuming too much iodine
thyroid gland inflammation
having benign tumors on your thyroid or pituitary gland
having tumors on your testicles or ovaries
consuming too much tetraiodothyronine from nutritional supplements

Graves’ disease

Graves’ disease happens when your immune system makes too many antibodies that hook up with thyroid cells. These thyroid cells get to your thyroid gland and overstimulate the gland. This causes the thyroid to make too much thyroid hormone.

Having too much thyroid hormone in your body can affect your nervous system. One symptom of this is nervous laughter even when nothing is happening that you find funny.

Some other common symptoms of Graves’ disease include:

shaking hands tremors
losing weight without an obvious cause
abnormally fast heart rate
getting hot easily
exhaustion
feeling nervous or irritable
weak muscle strength
thyroid gland swelling, known as a goiter
pooping more than usual or having diarrhea
trouble sleeping

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are also known as prion diseases. These rare diseases damage the brain by causing misfolded proteins known as prions to accumulate in the brain.

You could either contract these prions or inherit them genetically. They can also sometimes develop without a known cause.

The result is essentially holes in the brain that can look sponge-like, which is how this group of diseases has gotten its name. They are usually fatal.

One of the more common types of TSE is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Some common symptoms include:

trouble walking or with coordination
slurry speech
being moody or experiencing abnormal behavioral shifts
signs of dementia or memory loss
twitching or shaking in your muscles
vision problems

Prion diseases affect the brain where many cognitive and emotional processes are located. As part of these neurological symptoms, a person can experience nervous laughter.

Other human prion diseases are:

Fatal familial insomnia
Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome (GSS)
Kuru

How to stop laughing

Nervous laughter isn’t always easy to control, especially if it’s the result of a medical condition.

However, in the absence of an underlying condition, nervous laughter is usually a result of a negative emotion like anxiety.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) suggests a number of strategies to reduce anxiety. Indirectly, these may also help you reduce nervous laughter.

The strategies include:

Doing deep breathing exercises. These relax anxiety that can overstimulate your nervous system and your brain.
Engaging in quiet meditation. Use meditation to calm your mind and focus on something besides your stressors or other drains on your cognitive and emotional energy.
Practicing yoga. Movement through yoga can relax both your body and mind.
Participating in art and music therapy. These allow you to focus on the artistic and creative process and stimulate your brain.

In addition, seeing a mental health specialist may be a good idea if your anxiety is severe. Therapists work in different modalities. For example, you can meet with a therapist working withcognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This modality can help you understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can lead to symptoms such as nervous laughter.

Treatment for conditions

Here are some possible treatments for the conditions that can cause nervous laughter:

Hyperthyroidism. Methimazole (Tapazole) can help control hormone production, and iodine destroys extra hormone cells. Thyroid removal surgery is also a possibility.
Graves’ disease. The treatment is generally the same as hyperthyroidism, with some minor differences depending on your symptoms.
Other degenerative brain diseases. There are medications to help you manage the symptoms, but there’s no cure for many of these conditions.

When to talk with a doctor

You may want to see a therapist or counselor if you find yourself laughing at inappropriate times and it’s disrupting your life. They can help you learn how to cope and control nervous laughter through CBT or similar strategies.

See your doctor as soon as possible if you have any of the symptoms listed that might suggest a medical condition. You’re more likely to prevent possible complications if you treat these conditions early.

The bottom line

Nervous laughter isn’t something to be anxious or embarrassed about. Research suggests that it may actually be a useful tool against negative emotions or during a hard time in your life.

See a therapist or doctor if your nervous laughter:

is uncontrollable
disrupts your personal or professional life
happens along with more severe symptoms

How we reviewed this article:

SourcesHistoryHealthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We only use quality, credible sources to ensure content accuracy and integrity. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Aragón OR, et al. (2015). Dimorphous expressions of positive emotion: Displays of both care and aggression in response to cute stimuli.https://clarkrelationshiplab.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Psychological%20Science-2015-Arag%C3%B3n-259-73.pdf
Ascari LM, et al. (2020). Challenges and advances in antemortem diagnosis of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2020.585896/full
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Mathew P, et al. (2022). Hyperthyroidism.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537053/
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Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT — Written by Tim Jewell — Updated on May 31, 2023

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