Yawn!

1. sarahenity
   August 31st, 2007 at 5:45 am

   i remember being told that yawning occurred due to a lack of oxygen circulating within the body or maybe it was just the brain…

   but then again i’ve been told a lot of things.

2. Acedia
   August 31st, 2007 at 7:19 am

   It’s hardly a superstition that yawning is contagious (that anyone watching will yawn as well.) I’m so succeptible to it that is anyone even *says* the word yawn, I will. (Or yes, even reading the word will set me off.) My daughter thinks it’s the funniest thing and will say it on purpose to make me yawn repeatedly. It’s even happened when someone says the word “awning.” (I’ve yawned four times while typing this!)

3. Todell
   August 31st, 2007 at 7:48 am

   There was a recent study that suggested we yawn to cool our brains as a means to keep us alert. And that the reason yawns are contagious is that it was a way to keep a group alert and aware of potential dangers.

   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070621161826.htm

   “Science Daily — The next time you “catch a yawn” from someone across the room, you’re not copying their sleepiness, you’re participating in an ancient, hardwired ritual that might have evolved to help groups stay alert as a means of detecting danger. That’s the conclusion of University at Albany researchers Andrew C. Gallup and Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. in a study outlined in the May 2007 issue in Evolutionary Psychology (Volume 5.1., 2007).

   The psychologists, who studied yawning in college students, concluded that people do not yawn because they need oxygen, since experiments show that raising or lowering oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood fails to produce the reaction. Rather, yawning acts as a brain-cooling mechanism. The brain burns up to a third of the calories we consume, and as a consequence generates heat.

   According to Gallup and Gallup, our brains, not unlike computers, operate more efficiently when cool, and yawning enhances the brain’s functioning by increasing blood flow and drawing in cooler air.”

4. Justin
   August 31st, 2007 at 8:32 am

   I have a feeling that a lot of those stories about covering your mouth or X will happen began as a way parents got their kids to cover their mouth when they yawn.

   I know if I was 5 and my mom said you better cover your mouth when you yawn, OR THE DEVIL WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!!! I think I’d remember…

5. twitchings
   August 31st, 2007 at 9:35 am

   Stupid post made me yawn, I was just waking up.

6. Nicholas Dollak
   August 31st, 2007 at 9:40 am

   I’ve heard many of the superstitions and also the attempts by science to explain yawns. I’m not surprised that it’s still a mystery! I occasionally get “yawning fits,” during which I yawn repeatedly in succession for about five minutes. Although these “attacks” make me feel dizzy, they seem to hit without warning… and leave me feeling no different than before. They happen most often when I’m under extreme pressure or stress, but not in emergency situations.

   Also, although I often yawn when I see someone else yawning, this does not happen all the time (and I’m taking into account the fact that sometimes I yawned first). That is, I may not be yawning, I see someone else yawn, and it fails to provoke a sympathetic response in me. This happens mostly if I don’t know the yawner personally, which may support the “hardwired ritual” theory mentioned in “Science Daily.” I subconsciously do not recognize the stranger as part of my little “tribe,” so his or her yawn carries less significance for me than if a friend or family member yawns.

   So far, in my case, yawns seem to be connected with present (but not immediate) danger, and with some sort of social factor involved. I do yawn more when under stress than when relaxed. However, I also (though less frequently) yawn when relaxed and alone, so the conditions of danger and company are not requirements for yawning to occur.

   It might be a vestigial function that served a more definite purpose in our distant past; if its pupose is more clearly defined in other species, that might help us figure it out. Dogs and cats yawn, and they are related to us only so far as they are placental mammals; we parted ways many millions of years ago. Somewhere, there may have been a common ancestor to whom yawning probably served a useful function that improved its chances of surviving & mating. Although the yawn has since been supplanted by other tactics (maybe an improved cardiovascular system), the yawn proved in its time to be so useful that it became an integral part of many species descended from this ancestor. Kind of like the appendix on the large intestine.

7. Josh
   August 31st, 2007 at 4:24 pm

   I have yawned at least 5 times after reading this. I am not even tired.

8. Gaby
   August 31st, 2007 at 10:26 pm

   I’ve yawned my way through the whole article and the comments

9. Erik Olson
   September 2nd, 2007 at 2:35 am

   im glad people were as amused as i was!

10. Jess
    September 3rd, 2007 at 2:20 am

    What’s even more interesting is that scientists don’t yet know why we need sleep.

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