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Study finds crying is good for your mood — in the long run

Feeling a little choked up? Don't fight it.
/ Source: TODAY

Feeling a little choked up? Don't fight it. According to a study in Springer's "Motivation and Emotion" journal, tears can make a bad mood better — eventually.

Woman cries, up close.
Woman cries, up close.Chepko Danil Vitalevich / Shutterstock

Past studies have shown mixed results where crying and emotional rebound are concerned. But this one, which analyzed the emotional swings of 60 test subjects after watching a sad film, sought to explain those discrepancies.

A total of 28 participants cried, and immediately after the movie ended, they felt their moods were worse than before. The non-criers didn't experience a change.

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After 20 minutes, the criers felt better, returning to their pre-movie moods.

But things really got interesting at the 90-minute mark. While the non-criers remained even keeled, the weepers actually felt better than they did before the quasi-experimental study started.

So go ahead and let it out! And give it time.

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