Sense of humour is not of the same level for everyone, it varies with our temperament, our mindset, attitude & the phase of life one is going through.
Unfortunately there is limited research on Ageing and Humour especially in India, which in my opinion needs to be taken seriously because, “a good laugh is no laughing matter”.
The attached article by Gil Greengross posted on karger.com, Humor and Aging – A Mini-Review, is a great read & I am sharing a few snippets from that.
One of the most consistent findings about humor & aging is that humor appreciation increases with age, but at some point, roughly around 60 years of age, enjoyment of humor starts to decline.
In addition, while humor appreciation increases with age, comprehension of humor declines. It has been suggested that there is an inverse U relationship between cognitive demands & humor appreciation.
One study with 80 subjects’ ages 17-79 found that frequency of laughter was negatively correlated with age. Most of the decline occurred in the evenings, when elderly people tended to laugh half as much as the young population. The decline was also more prominent among elderly women.
Humor is often used to deal with stress and life’s adversities, and there is some evidence suggesting that elderly people tend to use humor as a coping mechanism more often than the younger population.
The ability to enjoy humor and the diverse ways it is consumed can reveal important facets of the aging process and has the potential to positively affect healthy aging.
The high cognitive demands that humor appreciation & production require might also help delay the cognitive decline associated with aging, similar to other cognitive activities that were found to help thwart the decline in cognitive abilities among the elderly.
I guess understanding the Ageing process should not be limited to Geriatric Medicine or pure Gerontology, staff needs to be trained on the finer aspects of Social, Recreational & Well-being of Seniors.
Pankaj Mehrotra
or the website at : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23689078/