Crying
Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state or pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, excitement, and even happiness. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation of the ocular structures", instead, giving a relief which protects from conjunctivitis.[1] A related medical term is lacrimation, which also refers to non-emotional shedding of tears. Various forms of crying are known as sobbing, weeping, wailing, whimpering, bawling, and blubbering.[2]
For other uses, see Crying (disambiguation). "Cry" redirects here. For other uses, see Cry (disambiguation). "Weep" redirects here. For other uses, see Weep (disambiguation).
For crying to be described as sobbing, it usually has to be accompanied by a set of other symptoms, such as slow but erratic inhalation, occasional instances of breath holding and muscular tremor.
A neuronal connection between the lacrimal gland and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion has been established.[3]
Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition which differs from other types of tears. They contain significantly greater quantities of the hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and Leu-enkephalin,[4] and the elements potassium and manganese.[5]
Frequency
According to the German Society of Ophthalmology, which has collated different scientific studies on crying, the average woman cries between 30 and 64 times a year, and the average man cries between 6 and 17 times a year.[25]
Men tend to cry for between two and four minutes, and women cry for about six minutes. Crying turns into sobbing for women in 65% of cases, compared to just 6% for men. Before adolescence, no difference between the sexes was found.[26][25]
The gap between how often men and women cry is larger in wealthier, more democratic, and feminine countries.[27]