Safe "infection", or Why yawning is contagious. why yawning is contagious why yawning is contagious

05.07.2007

On average, a yawn lasts 6 seconds.

Yawning serves to keep us awake rather than a sign of sleepiness, US researchers say. But why, at the sight of a yawning person, we also want to yawn? Yawning is an involuntary action that everyone does. We start yawning before we are born, and most creatures on the planet yawn too - even snakes and fish.

New research shows that yawning is not a sign of sleepiness, but rather to cool the brain so it can work more efficiently and keep us awake. Their theory provides an answer to this puzzling question - why do so many of us yawn when we see someone else yawn, or even when just reading or thinking about it?

And a few years ago, British researchers conducted experiments. For example, you have placed control persons in the reception area. And then one of the research team added incognito and yawns defiantly long and wide. Have the researchers noticed who is collaborating and who is not? They then conducted a psychological test with the same subjects, testing someone's ability to read someone else's mood. And it turned out that people infected by the yawning of another person who also has a high Empathyvert have a strong empathy.

You may also be interested in the following answers

Question of the Week Why is yawning contagious?

As soon as a man yawns his teeth than he does in turn. But what is the purpose of a synchronous mouth tear? The behavioral biologist asks himself two questions: "Is this really true?" And why?" In addition to all areas of science, he also loves music and British thrillers. The study of religion and faith is recommended by atheists as well as Jesuits.

According to this theory, when we yawn at the sight of someone else doing it, we are participating in an ancient, "hard-wired" ritual that evolved to help groups stay alert and recognize danger.

"herd instinct"

It has nothing to do with copying another person's behavior, say the researchers at the University of Albany in New York who are behind the study.

We got angry when we were tired, bored - or yawned. These triggers are well documented. But what is the purpose of a wide mouth gap is not yet clear. Of course, only one thing: the reaction to oxygen deficiency - contrary to what is often said - no. But be careful: perhaps our decision is premature.

Recently, researchers at the State University of New York at Albany reported that yawning promotes heat exchange in the brain. Andrew and Gordon Gallup observed that subjects who breathed through their noses did not allow yawning—unlike subjects with nose braces. And even a cold object pressed to the forehead prevents "yawning".

"In our opinion, the contagiousness of yawning depends on emotional mechanisms that serve to maintain group vigilance," said Dr. Gordon Gallup, lead researcher at the university.

This view is also supported by observations made by Robert Provine of the University of Maryland, which found that paratroopers yawn before jumping.

"There is a widespread assumption that yawning is disrespectful to others and a sign of boredom," Gallups said. "But it looks like it reflects a mechanism that maintains awareness." And when asked about the reasons for the infection, scientists also give the answer: “If someone yawns in a group because their thinking is slowing down, a contagious effect can occur to keep the group vigilant.”

According to Banninger, the contagious effect of gaping can have a synchronous effect on changing the calmness and activity in the group - according to the motto: One is tired - all are tired. Another approach is being taken by researchers from the University of Leeds. “We believe that a contagious yawn is an indicator of empathy,” said Catriona Morrison and her team at the British Association Science Festival in York. "This indicates that the behavior and mental health of others matter a lot."

But there are other theories as well. It is hypothesized that the contagiousness of yawning may be caused by the subconscious herd instinct - an inconspicuous way of communicating with others, similar to how flocks of birds take off at the same time.

Another theory explains this by saying that yawning may have helped early humans express their alertness and coordinate sleep timing. Those. if someone decided that it was time for bed, he informed others about it with a yawn, and they answered him in the same way, showing that they agreed.

British scientists put the subjects in a full waiting room. There they were subjected to a massive onlooker attack. What the subjects didn't know: The tired man who opened his mouth ten times for ten minutes belonged to the study group. And his colleagues calculated how often the study participants were infected.

The subjects then participated in testing their ability to interpret the emotional expression of others. In this dimension of empathic ability, those who were previously more vicious performed particularly well. British researchers confirmed the results of their tests, which were previously obtained by Stephen Platek and his team at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Platek showed his stories with yawning people and found that those who were highly immune to mouth rupture showed little sympathy.

According to researchers from the University of Kyoto, Japan, contagious yawning has also been observed among chimpanzees. They are supposed to be the only creatures other than humans to have this feature. The rest of the animal kingdom, including birds, snakes, and hippos, yawn for other reasons. Dogs, for example, yawn to stay calm in certain situations, says Turid Rugaas, author of On talking Terms with Dogs.

By the way, chimpanzees can also become infected by the yawns of their fellows. An obvious sign, some researchers now suspect that our close relatives also have a certain amount of empathy. By the way, the process of infection presumably depends on the so-called mirror neurons, which are equipped with the brains of humans and monkeys. These nerve cells are active when you are performing an action on your own and when you are just watching it. They commit behavior within, so to speak. And this is the first step towards unconscious imitation.

So if someone yawns loudly at your slide party in the future, just interpret it so that he or she is at least trying to follow your comments purposefully. If the pharynx spreads quickly among the guests, be grateful for such compassionate friends. And then internally prepare for the whole round so that you can start soon.

If you have read the article to the end and never yawned, then you should not think that you are an exception. In fact, only about half of adults are prone to contagious yawning!

Why is yawning contagious? Did you pay attention to it? After all, as soon as someone yawns, everyone around starts doing the same. Even if there is absolutely no reason for it. So why is yawning contagious? Scientists have tried to figure out...

But the fact that Reinhold Messner conquered Mount Everest without a blunder makes this notion very dubious. But why is it so contagious? In one of his experiments, some subjects received pure oxygen to breathe. They yawned as often as those who breathed normal air.

People who suffer from yawning are sympathetic and compassionate individuals, say researchers at the University of New York at Albany. American psychologists showed subjects a video of people while yawning. They recorded how often the guinea pigs had to yawn. In addition, the researchers conducted additional psychological tests with the subjects.

Why is yawning contagious? Observations

What do the doctors say? Their very first belief in the question of why yawning is contagious is the following thought: people who do not know how to empathize are prone to it, that is, tough personalities who are unable to imagine themselves in the place of someone else.

Why is yawning contagious? many people ask. Yes, it is, of course, closely related to the "prelude of sleep." But, nevertheless, why do people yawn, who, it would seem, don’t even want to sleep?

The result of the study was very unexpected: those people who did not get infected by yawning in the video could also be in the situation of other people in other test situations. They could hardly feel the mood of others. The test people who yawned frequently were able to improve themselves in the mood of others. Researchers suspect that yupping is a way to unconsciously show sympathy for another, for an ally with him.

People with mental illness or personality disorders may not be moved to yawn at all. In these conditions, people have extreme trouble recognizing other people's emotions. Yawning should be a kind of communication, "stupid" language.

One of the theories is rather unusual. Once upon a time, people lived in herds, like chimpanzees. And they had to go to bed only at the same time. Yawning just served them as a signal that it was time for sleep. The yawn of each neighbor was a signal to yawn to the person himself. After that - sleep. So have long acted, by the way, and herd animals.

The same applies to evolutionary biologists. In her opinion, yawning in the disinterested primeval time of man served to synchronize group activities. Yawning, according to this hypothesis, led to more intense activity, such as hunting. It was probably an invitation to the other members of the group to go hunting together.

Are you accusing you of a control reading? People with a psychopathic nature are less prone to horror than others. But be careful: not everyone who doesn't join automatically becomes a psychopath, the researchers say. Everyone knows how contagious a yawn can be: when someone in the group starts to yawn, they will quickly jump on other observers. Itself, and even let itself become infected with a strange yawning. "You can yawn even when you don't have to," says Brian Rundle of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

There is a contagious yawning, by the way, between animals and people. As soon as the owner yawned, the dog repeats it. The fact is that dogs tend to empathize with their human owner. They understand all his gestures and views.

Domino effect

Why do people yawn and why is yawning contagious? It would seem that you do not feel very tired. However, as soon as someone yawns, you also open your mouth in a long yawn. This phenomenon is called "contagious yawning". Its origin, in principle, has not yet been clarified by scientists. However, several hypotheses still exist.

Contagious gestures are considered a sign of empathy: those who especially like to feel sighted themselves make you yawn. To test his guess, Rundle first asked 135 students to answer a standardized questionnaire. Instead, there are a number of prominent typical psychopathic traits.

The electrodes show an impulse to the pharynx

In this way, the scientists were able to see how strong the impulse was to yawn at the study participants through the faces shown. Indeed, the experiment confirmed the assumption that those who had previously shown weak empathy in the psycho-test could also be infected less often in Janens.

One of them claims that a contagious yawn is provoked by certain stimuli. This is called a set pattern of action. The sample works simultaneously as a reflex and a domino effect. That is, the yawn of an outsider literally makes another person, who has become an accidental witness to this event, do the same. Most importantly, this reflex cannot be resisted. Just like the beginning of a yawn. In a word, the situation is very interesting.

Neurological link between gestures and psychopathy

However, the study clarifies the links, the researcher says, "What we've learned tells us that there's a neurological link between psychopathy and contagious breakup," Rundle says. "This is a good starting point to ask more questions."

At the sight of a gaping person, we often feel an irresistible urge to do the same. This curious contagion phenomenon has long lured researchers. It is already known that yawning is also contagious among our closest relatives in the animal kingdom - the monkey. But then joined the dog in the Mit-Ghaener community. However, in this context, it has been suspected that it may have something to do with the domestication of four-legged friends. Now, however, researchers have noticed that even a wolf can become infected by yawning.

chameleon effect

Consider the second physiological reason why yawning is so contagious. It is known as the chameleon effect, or unconscious mimicry. Someone else's behavior serves as the basis for its unintentional imitation. People tend to borrow postures and gestures from each other. For example, your interlocutor crosses his legs opposite. And you will do the same without even noticing it.

The contagiousness of gaping has a social dimension, research has already shown: the phenomenon reflects the creature's ability to empathize with its counterpart - to feel sympathy. When we see a person who is yawning, we feel their sensation and react with the same behavior. The more familiar the person, the stronger the desire to mirror their behavior. This is also true of the infectiousness of gaping among chimpanzees and dogs.

The fact that chimpanzees, who are so similar to us, exhibit this behavior does not seem so surprising. But in the case of a dog, this is quite. Thus, it was previously speculated that it might have something to do with taming man's best friend. In this context, it is already known that social behavior differs between the dog and its wild predecessor, the wolf. But as the observations of researchers around Teresa Romero at the University of Tokyo show, this doesn't sound like a social yawn.

This happens, apparently, because of a special set of mirror neurons sharpened to copy other people's actions, which are extremely important for self-awareness and learning. A person can learn some physical practices (knitting, applying lipstick, etc.) by watching someone else do it. It has been proven that when we hear or contemplate someone else's yawn, we activate our mirror neurons.

Apparently no domesticating effect in the dog

To study them, the researchers filmed a wolf pack containing twelve animals at a Japanese zoo over the course of five months. They recorded in pictures which animal yawned and whether it was nocturnal. After their assessments, the scientists concluded: even with wolves, yawning is contagious, and even with them, the closer the animals, the stronger the effect. Observations have shown that women usually become infected especially intensively.

“The result suggests that contagious yawning is a legacy we share with other creatures and that this behavior reflects an emotional bond between humans,” says Romero. However, one aspect of the contagious gaping history remains unclear to the wolf: chimpanzees and dogs can also become infected across the species barrier by human yawning. So perhaps there are more experiments with gaping humans and wolves as observers.

The psychological cause is also based on the action of mirror neurons. It's called the empathy yawn. That is, it is the ability to share and understand other people's emotions, which is extremely important for people.

Not so long ago, neuroscientists found that mirror neurons give a person the opportunity to experience empathy at the deepest level. The study was conducted to find out whether dogs can respond to the sounds of human yawns. As it turned out, animals pay attention more often to the familiar yawn of their owners.

Yawning continues, but not all

Moreover, more familiar with another person. The closer we are to a person, the more contagious is his gaping for us. This was discovered by a research team from the University of Pisa and the Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology in Rome. Accordingly, familiarity with gaping is primarily responsible for the contagiousness of gaping.

To study them, scientists observed 109 men and women in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa in everyday situations. At the same time, they recorded both the relationship between people and how often they yawned. Using a cell phone, they recorded who yawned, when and where, and who was infected with the yawn.

Results

And finally. Yawning is contagious and very helpful. The phenomenon is rather mysterious. Why is it needed at all? Some believe that this is a great way to increase the amount of oxygen in the blood. Accordingly, for cheerfulness. Others argue that yawning lowers the temperature of the brain, cools it down. But, that's why it is contagious - it's still difficult to say.

By the way, this is not only about yawning. Panic, excitement, laughter, and many other states of ours are also contagious. Remember that man is a "herd animal". Therefore, the “herd instincts” are very well developed in him.

Thus, certain conclusions can be drawn. Yawning is truly contagious, and it is almost impossible to resist the urge to yawn in the presence of a sleepy person. All the reasons are in our psychology, in the peculiarities of our brain and thinking. In general, the human body, as usual, never ceases to amaze us!

Yawning is more contagious than a cold. If a person yawns in front of your eyes, then you will almost certainly yawn too. You may yawn even while reading about yawning. By the way, have you yawned yet? If yes, then you are in good company. Human beings yawn all day long. We yawn when we wake up in the morning, we yawn when we go to bed at night. We yawn a lot when we watch TV and sit in class. We even yawn when we jog in the park.

Interesting fact: some animals, such as monkeys and lions, yawn when they are hungry.

Who else yawns besides people?

Humans are not the only creatures on Earth that yawn. Many other animals (from lion to fish) tend to frequently open their jaws in sweet yawns. When we see a person yawning, we think they are tired or bored. But if a Siamese fighting fish yawns, beware! The male begins to yawn when he sees a foreign male in his territory. Several yawns follow, one every ten minutes. Then a fish attacks another fish and a fight breaks out. Some animals, such as monkeys and lions, yawn when they are hungry.

Why do people yawn?

A common explanation is that we yawn to breathe in more oxygen, for example in a stuffy room. But psychologist Robert Provine, who studies yawning, argues that this is not true. People who breathe pure oxygen yawn at least as often as those who breathe ordinary air. Provine says no one knows exactly why people yawn or why yawning is so contagious. But he's trying to figure it out.

Interesting:

Why are tears and sweat salty?

For many years, Provine conducted yawning experiments at the University of Maryland. In one experiment, the subject sat in a quiet room and thought about yawning. When he felt the need to yawn, he pressed the button. When the yawning ended, he pressed the button again.

Provine found that the average duration of a yawn was six seconds. One of the subjects, concentrating, yawned 76 times within half an hour. Provine then filmed himself yawning and smiling. When the subjects were shown this videotape, only one in five viewers smiled back at Provine, but half of the viewers responded with a yawn for a yawn. Conclusion: yawning is much more contagious than friendly disposition.

Why is yawning necessary?

When we yawn, the head tilts back, the lower jaw drops, the eyes close, and the eyebrows frown. Provine emphasizes that while stretching, we usually yawn at the same time, so yawning may be a kind of sipping for the muscles of the head and neck. But yawning also causes a delay in oxygen-carrying blood in the brain.

Thus, yawning can both wake us up and calm us down. Try to observe yourself, advises Provine, and you will understand that yawning is not just a deep breath. If you purse your lips when a yawn begins and try to breathe through your nose, then you will find that this is absolutely impossible. If a yawn were just a deep breath, then you could breathe through your nose with equal success during a yawn.

We yawn, waking up in the morning and falling asleep in the evening. We yawn in boring meetings and long pauses. We yawn when someone nearby yawns.
It would seem that such a familiar reflex, or ritual. But surprisingly, researchers are still confused about the reasons for its appearance.

What is a yawn?

Yawning is a breathing process that occurs involuntarily with deep, prolonged inhalation and relatively rapid exhalation. The mouth, as a rule, is wide open and a peculiar sound accompanies such a respiratory action, and in some, tears also come out reflexively.

The process of yawning is in most cases a normal physiological phenomenon that occurs with a lack of oxygen, stressful situations, overwork, but it can be a sign of some diseases in the body.

Causes

The most common version says that yawning is such a protective mechanism that allows the brain to relieve fatigue by cheering up with a fresh dose of oxygen, and at the same time getting rid of excess carbon dioxide. Statistics and studies support this hypothesis: people most often yawn at times when their gray matter is tired and obviously needs rest - for example, in the evening after a hard day at work, during a boring meeting, or a prolonged overly difficult lecture

A yawn is essentially similar to inhaling when the lungs and blood are saturated with oxygen. However, as it turned out, people yawn even if they are given pure oxygen for breathing - that is, the reflex opening of the mouth has nothing to do with hypoxia (lack of oxygen). With what then?

Yawning is needed to cool the brain - tells us one of the most recent and gaining popularity of theories. A computer or laptop, for example, cannot function without a built-in fan: under heavy load, the processor overheats and, if it is not cooled down in time, may fail. Our gray matter is arranged according to a similar principle: with prolonged or intense work, its temperature rises, which worsens the connections between neurons and ultimately has a destructive effect on thinking. Therefore, the brain needs cooling - an open window or a walk in the park, a glass of cool water, or (since neither the walk nor the glass shines) a sweet yawn can help.

In principle, experiments confirm the cooling theory. For example, volunteers who had an ice compress applied to their forehead while watching boring movies yawned 2 times less than a group of volunteers without an ice compress. So, if you feel that you are yawning, be sure to note: Your brain is overheated, and it would be nice to walk it in the fresh air.

Why yawning is contagious

To make sure that yawning cannot have simple explanations, it is enough to recall a well-known fact: this reflex is contagious. One has only to yawn for someone - and an epidemic of yawning covers most of those around them.

It is impossible to explain this either by oxygen starvation or overheating of the brain, because the physiological processes of each individual proceed individually, which means they cannot be simultaneous. So the reflex has some other meaning. And he was indeed discovered by stumbling upon another fact.

Yawning in people does not only start with visual contact with a yawning person: often, to start the process, you just need to think about yawning, read about it, or hear a specific sound of yawning. From this it follows that the reflex is not always a physiological process, but also a mental one.

After conducting research, scientists came to the conclusion that yawning is contagious due to mirror neurons. They are located in the gray matter layer of the brain not only of people, but also of some animals, birds, and are endowed with the property of empathy - they begin to get excited when we see the actions of others. These neurons are responsible for the ability to imitate (for example, when learning foreign languages) and empathize. They make you consciously experience the emotions of other people, which is actually called empathy.

Roughly speaking: You yawn - it means that you have empathy and are able to act in social groups. It is assumed that our ancient ancestors thus defined "their" - those with whom you can play in a team. By the way, as experiments show, children under 4 years old and those who suffer from autism are not subject to mirror yawning: they have not yet learned to act according to social laws. However, interesting facts about yawning are not limited to this.

Yawning can be "infected" as a person from a person, and from a person to a dog. Studies by Swedish scientists prove that dogs can yawn when yawning people come into their field of vision, and the older the dog, the more prone to reflex imitation, and yawning is not transmitted to puppies less than 7 months of age.

If we talk about spontaneous, non-imitative yawning, then different animals have their own reasons for it. The same dogs often “reflex” when they are excited - for example, when they find themselves in an unusual environment. While waiting for dinner at the zoo, the lions begin to yawn intensely. Hyenas - when preparing to attack the victim. Many monkeys, opening their mouths wide, show their superiority in a pack of relatives. Birds, turtles, crocodiles, snakes yawn from time to time...

But herbivores yawn much less often than cold-blooded and predatory ones. For example, it is extremely rare to find a yawning horse, cow, camel or hare. This, by the way, leads scientists to the idea that yawning may be somehow related to the level of intellectual development: those creatures whose IQ is higher yawn more often than "stupid ones".

What is frequent yawning a sign of?

By itself, frequent yawning cannot be a sign of some kind of illness. Its appearance can provoke lack of sleep, fatigue, stress, nervousness, overeating, boredom. In this case, this is a normal reaction of the body to such factors. It is worth removing them and yawning will return to normal. By the way, during the day a person yawns at least 10 times.

The presence of other symptoms with frequent yawning may be a sign of illness. For example, with constant drowsiness and frequent yawning, a diagnosis is possible - vegetative-vascular dystonia or cardiac arrhythmia.

Dizziness with blurred vision, an increase in body temperature, along with frequent yawning, may be a precursor to an epileptic seizure.

How to overcome yawning?

There are times when yawning is inappropriate. There are several ways to deal with it:

• When approaching the next yawn, you need to take a deep breath through your mouth and exhale through your nose.
• A sip of water or wetting the lips with it helps many.
• Adequate sleep acts as a prevention of frequent yawning.
• Exercising will keep your body energized by oxygenating it. You can do squats, push-ups or other physical exercises that will increase the tone of the body.
• Proper nutrition and drinking the required amount of water throughout the day prevents the occurrence of frequent yawning.
• Don't slouch. Straight posture contributes to the full filling of the lungs with oxygen. When the back is bent, the diaphragm is not completely saturated with air, which can provoke rapid yawning.
• Walking in the fresh air, airing the room, quitting smoking will help get rid of causeless yawning.

Video: why do people yawn?

It is important to understand that yawning is a natural positive respiratory action that activates the body and is not in itself a sign of illness. So the attitude to the phrase "Don't yawn!" worth revisiting a bit. Yawn and be healthy.

Yawning is a reflex physiological process that involves 5 body systems: nervous, muscular, skeletal, respiratory and circulatory. A single and final explanation of this process does not currently exist. However, there are some interesting theories: we yawn to cool off an overheated brain; we yawn to drive away fatigue and activate the nervous system; yawning helps relieve nervous tension; yawning helps to make up for the lack of oxygen and "regulate" the pressure in the ears. However, in addition to the true cause of this process, the best minds of mankind still cannot unambiguously answer a not very significant, but very interesting question: “Why is yawning contagious?”.

Why yawning is contagious: the main hypotheses

All guesses about the causes of yawning agree that this reflex somehow helps to activate the body, invigorate it, saturate it with oxygen or cool it - that is, to benefit it. Then why is yawning contagious?

The question of the contagiousness of yawning is under study. However, to date, there are several hypotheses that explain this phenomenon.

1. Remains of antiquity.

For primitive people, yawning was a signal to go to sleep. By transmitting such a signal to each other, people could coordinate their actions.

1. Reflex.

We are "infected" with yawning, because a person's yawning is a stimulus to which we react reflexively - with our own yawning. Scientists use the term "fixed form of action" to describe this phenomenon. It is noteworthy that this reflex is very difficult to stop.

1. Chameleon effect.

One explanation for why yawning is contagious is unconscious imitation. In other words, we tend to unconsciously assume the postures of the interlocutor, adopt the manner of communicating with loved ones, etc. This hypothesis is based on the so-called mirror neurons, which determine the same reaction of the body to actions performed by another person. It is worth noting that human mirror neurons have not been studied enough, but experts believe that they are an integral part of the process of human learning and self-knowledge: when we see how another person (parents, teacher, coach) performs a certain action, we involuntarily manage to perform its better. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan has shown that an area of ​​mirror neuron clusters is activated when we hear the characteristic sound of a yawn.

1. Psychological theory.

The psychological theory behind the contagiousness of yawning is also based on mirror neurons. Only, unlike the physiological theory, psychologists call mirror yawning a manifestation of empathy - the ability to empathize, understand and share the emotions of others. It has been established that other social animals also have this ability: dogs also yawn in response to the characteristic sound of a yawn. What's more, dogs are more likely to "infect" yawns from their owners and familiar people than from strangers.

The phenomenon of contagious yawning begins to manifest itself in a child, starting from 4-5 years. In autistic children who find it difficult to communicate with the outside world, the contagiousness of yawning is much less pronounced. There is also a hypothesis that the cause of autism in children is precisely a violation in the work of mirror neurons.

People who have a well-developed area of ​​the brain responsible for empathy and empathy are more prone to mirror yawning.

the site hopes that scientists will finally be able to combine their theories together - and we will finally find out why yawning is contagious.

To get started, watch this video, which was shot by one fan of a joke. It will visually show you how contagious yawning really is (I wonder how many times you will yawn while watching it?). True, the joker in vain limited himself to experiments on people. For example, this infection is also transmitted to dogs from humans.

And then read the scientific explanation for this phenomenon: do you see someone yawning and trying not to yawn yourself? It's practically impossible. Even just reading about yawning will make you want to yawn. Why is yawning so contagious? A new study tries to explain this fact.

Researchers have shown that children under the age of four do not exhibit this behavior. Children with autism are half as likely to yawn back, and more often than not, they don't yawn at all. The results of the study suggest that contagious yawning is a sign of empathy and a form of social bonding.

The study suggests that there is little to no scientific evidence to support many of our popular beliefs about why and when we yawn, what the yawn is for, and what circumstances affect how often we yawn.

Yawning is triggered by a hitherto unknown physiological state. However, if you see someone yawn, you really want to yawn immediately, and this is one of the few examples of such human behavior. In fact, yawning can be triggered even by reading or just thinking about it. These findings are the result of a study by leading yawning expert Dr. Robert Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland. Dr. Provine and two other scientists have summarized everything that science has known so far about yawning.

Yawning is a common and probably universal human behavior that occurs throughout life. When yawning, the opening of the mouth is accompanied by a long inhalation followed by a short exhalation. Yawning plays a big role in opening the Eustachian tubes (which run from the ear to the throat) and in regulating air pressure in the middle ear.

Yawning is extremely important for health. Yawning (or lack of it) can be a symptom of brain damage, tumors, bleeding, motion sickness, chorea, and encephalitis. It is an important therapeutic factor in the prevention of postoperative respiratory complications. One study reported that psychotics rarely yawn unless the brain is damaged. Some doctors claim that people with acute mental disorders do not yawn until they start to get better.

Yawning is often associated with drowsiness, boredom, and low arousal responses. Research confirms that people tend to yawn when taking part in long, boring, monotonous activities, and also when watching something uninteresting, as opposed to participating in and watching lively and curious events.

Dr. Provine and colleagues believe that yawning is underestimated by researchers. He adds that the claim of a link between sleepiness and yawning is based on common sense and everyday observation, to which science has little to add. For example, the sleep literature only occasionally mentions an increase in the frequency of yawning in sleepy people, but emphasizes off-topic or general points about yawning.

Neurological evidence for a link between yawning and stretching comes from reports of people with brain damage unable to separate the two behaviors. During yawning, such patients often demonstrate appropriate movements in the rest of the paralyzed parts of the body. Studies show that medications that cause yawns induce panting in a variety of animals.

Provine's research states that there is evidence of at least partial autonomy between yawning and stretching. Based on one of his laboratory experiments, he writes: “While 47% of stretches were accompanied by yawns, only 11% of yawns were accompanied by stretches.” In addition, the scientist suggests that yawning, which occurs before falling asleep and after a person wakes up, can be both a mechanism for increasing attention and activating the brain, and a signal to relax, a way to reduce activity, hurry us up, or somehow otherwise prepare for sleep.

Provine and his colleagues note that few hypotheses regarding the meaning of yawning have been seriously considered. Nor has scientific support been found for the widely held belief that yawning is either a reaction or a way to regulate the level of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the blood. Scientists have found that yawning is not generated or suppressed by the inhalation of gases with elevated levels of carbon dioxide or oxygen. The researchers also report that yawning is not associated with strenuous exercise. It has been found that people who yawn infrequently do not make up for it with longer yawns. Similarly, people who yawn frequently don't yawn faster.

By the way, if Dr. Provine and his colleagues are right about everything that was said above, then you should have yawned a couple of times while reading the last few paragraphs.

Yawn Facts:

"It appears that emotional contagion is the basic instinct that holds us together," says Molly Helt, a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Connecticut. "Yawning could be part of that. For example, the fact that children with autism are not affected by the contagious effect of yawning may mean that they don't have that unconscious emotional connection with those around them."

A baby starts yawning in the womb as early as 11 weeks after conception, says Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland. And so all my life. For what reason, scientists have not yet determined. In fact, all animals yawn, including snakes and lizards.

Scientists from an American university conducted an experiment in which 10 students took part. They were asked to watch a videotape of people yawning. During the viewing, a magnetic resonance imaging scanner was connected to the brain of each of them.
Scientists have noticed that those students who have a special activity in the areas of the brain responsible for empathy yawn. It was concluded that, looking at a yawning person, more sensitive people who are able to empathize begin to yawn.

A typical yawn, on average, lasts 6 seconds.
- A person yawns every 68 seconds
- Men and women yawn equally often, but men are less likely to cover their mouths
- If they look at you, then you are unlikely to be able to yawn
- Some animals yawn to show how big their teeth are.