Air Force Staff Sgt. David Brown, 15th Air Support Operations Squadron joint terminal attack controller, laughs after finishing a speed drill during Draco Spear at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia in August 2018 (Photo by: Air Force Senior Airman Janiqua Robinson).
Killian explained that laughter has the dual benefits of being free and easy. It also isn't time-consuming.
"Laughter is a super easy thing to do. We can all laugh, but I think we get stuck focusing on lists of things we have to do, bills we have to pay, tasks that are required at work. We have this constant list of things in our minds that don't allow our minds to rest," she said. "If we just took a minute to try to laugh, even if you're fake laughing, it engages the diaphragm, which is where our vagus nerve sits."
This, she said, is where the science of laughing and its health benefits come into play.
"The vagus nerve activates your parasympathetic nervous system, the 'rest and digest' part of your nervous system, which is the opposite of the 'fight or flight' part of your nervous system so, essentially, you're telling your body to relax when you laugh," said Killian. "If you do that once or twice a day, share a laugh with a friend or a coworker, you immediately feel a sensation of relaxation in your body, whether you're conscious of it or not. It counteracts the chronic stress response."
That means there’s a physiological reason that you feel better when you laugh.
"It's good for your respiratory system, your autonomic nervous system and your mind," Killian said.
Not only is laughter free and easy, Killian said, but it also gets easier with time.
"The great thing about laughing is the more we do it, the easier it is to do," she said.
As National Nurses Week comes to close, Killian said stress management, including using laughter, is extremely important for nurses.
"We do what we can to try to get health care staff to take a little bit of time for self-care and to use their leave so they can recharge their batteries, so to speak, so they can get the rest that is needed, and to spend time with family," she said. "Hopefully now, with vaccination numbers increasing and the hospitalization rate decreasing, we can try to give nurses, health care workers and support personnel some time back to recover."
She said health care, especially within the military, has the potential to be even more stressful because of the obligation that providers feel they have to others.
"As military health care providers, we're programmed to take care of others, almost to our own detriment. Sometimes, we don't take time to take care of ourselves," said Killian. "Nurses Week is a time when we can appreciate the work that nurses and medical technicians do for our communities and remind them that we appreciate them, and we want them to take care of themselves. They are a limited and extremely valuable resource that we celebrate this month.