Why cry…we do it when we’re sad, laughing, in pain, we even cry during our favorite tv show or movie. But why? what’s the point of crying?

Everyone has had that one time when you have shed a few tears maybe you were sad over a breakup or death, or maybe something was just so funny you couldn’t help it. Have you ever thought about why though?

“Crying is a natural emotional response to certain feelings, usually sadness and hurt. But then people cry under other circumstances and occasions,” says Stephen Sideroff, PhD, a staff psychologist at Santa Monica–University of California Los Angeles. Humans expel various compounds in body fluids that give off subtle messages to other members.

There are 3 different types of tears that all have different purposes. The first tears are basil tears, basil tears are what keeps your eyes from getting dry. We produce about 10 ounces of basil tears a day. This is also a reason why many people suffer from a stuffy nose after they been crying for a while. The second type is reflex tears, these tears help protect the eye from irritations like onions, smoking and dust. The final type of tear is the emotional tear, the emotional tear is when you are genuinely sad or happy, the endocrine system is triggered to release hormones that eventually form tears. 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, Leu-enkephalin, and the elements potassium and manganese.

Tears are produced by the lacrimal glands that are just above the outer corner of each eye. The film of tears on the eye is a complex system, consisting of three layers: oil, water and mucus. The water layer is the thickest and contains electrolytes, proteins, glucose and other substances.