It’s the month of love. Let’s just say all of us need a hug with Valentine’s Day around the corner.
Hugging is not just a fantastic way of strengthening bonds with your loved ones—it is also great for your health. And here’s one more reason to smile if you don’t have a human to hug. Science has proven that cuddling up to your pet offers similar benefits to cuddling up to your favorite people.
So, grab a loved one and explore the science behind hugs and the amazing things they can do for your health. You can also share our blog post as a sweet reminder to your dear ones to love and hug more.
The Science Behind Hugging Your Way To Good Health
The reason hugs feel so satisfying is that it plays with our sense of touch. Touch comprises two systems known as:
Fast-touch involves a system of nerves that helps us to detect instantly any kind of contact, such as a tap on our shoulder or a mosquito on our face.
Slow-touch involves the recently discovered nerves, called c-tactile afferents, that go beyond the detection of the physical touch and processes the powerful emotional signals. The c-tactile afferents are activated by a more gentle, skin-temperature touch or stimulation like a long caress, hug, or kiss.
Touch is also the first sense to work in the womb at around 14 weeks. After birth, a mother’s touch, caress, or hug benefits her newborn baby by accelerating the growth of brain cell connections, among other health benefits. It’s no different when we are adults. The c-tactile afferent stimulation signals our brain’s emotion processing networks through the spinal cord and induces an outpouring of neurochemical signals proven to be beneficial for our health.
The Benefits of Hugging
Here are some of the positive effects or health benefits of hugs.
- Hugs Can Improve Your Mental Health
Hugging is not just a pleasurable activity, it can also have a positive effect on your mental health. It can help reduce stress, improve your mood, and build resilience naturally.
Hugs can make people feel happier, reduce their feelings of loneliness, and combat stress better with the release of feel-good hormones, such as oxytocin and decrease the stress-inducing hormone, cortisol.
- Hugs Are Good For Your Heart
Hugging can be beneficial for your heart health, as it can slow down your heart rate and reduce stress hormones like cortisol. Studies have found that frequent hugs can even protect people from increased susceptibility to illnesses caused by stress.
- Hugs Can Help Lower Your Blood Pressure
Hugging can be beneficial for your blood pressure. Research shows that when you hug, touch, or sit close to someone you love, your body releases oxytocin. Oxytocin has a strong effect on women and reduces blood pressure and norepinephrine, which acts as a stress hormone and neurotransmitter.
- Hugs Can Help Boost Your Immune System
Hugs can give your immune system a healthy boost. When you hug, your body releases oxytocin, which can help fight off infections and reduce inflammation. Research has even found that hugging could protect us against the common cold. And even if the people who hugged caught a cold, they had less severe symptoms than the non-huggers.
- Hugs Can Aid Sleep
From hugging your newborn to sleep to cuddling your partner, gentle hugs can promote sleep, as it lowers cortisol, the key regulator of our sleep-wake cycle. Reduced cortisol levels also mean lesser stress, which can help you sleep better. High-stress levels are associated with delayed, fragmented sleep patterns and insomnia. Hugging also releases oxytocin, which relaxes and eases us into having high-quality sleep.
Hugging: How To Do It Right?
The longer you hug, the better for your health. Science says no less than 20 seconds for the feel-good hormones to release and do their trick.
There’s no doubt that hugging is a fantastic non-verbal way of connecting with others. But it’s important to make sure that you have the other person’s consent before hugging them. Not everyone’s comfortable hugging or with any kind of physical contact and that should be respected. However, if you have their consent, make your hugs last longer than 20 seconds. More importantly, you don’t want your hugs to feel like a chore. So, be present at the moment and enjoy it while it lasts.
Conclusion
Hugging can be beneficial for your health. Hugging can not only help strengthen your relationships with loved ones but also improve your heart health, and immune system, and reduce stress levels and blood pressure. The next time you meet your loved ones, don’t forget to give them a long, big hug.
(Disclaimer: We routinely draw upon public health resources to inform our write-ups. Information in this article may be drawn up from multiple public health sources, including:
- Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
- Medline Plus
- National Institutes of Health
- American Medical Association
- American Association of Family Physicians
- Mayo Clinic
- Family Doctor