Common Yawning Theories
While the dictionary tells us that yawning is caused by being fatigued, drowsy or bored, scientists are discovering that there is more to yawning than what most people think. Not much is known about why we yawn or if it serves any useful function, and very little research has been done on the subject. However, there are several theories about why we yawn. Here are the three most common theories:
The simple truth is that even though humans have been yawning for possibly as long as they have existed, we have no clue as to why we do it.
The Physiological Theory — Our bodies induce yawning to drawn in more oxygen or remove a build-up of carbon dioxide. This theory helps explain why we yawn in groups. Larger groups produce more carbon dioxide, which means our bodies would act to draw in more oxygen and get rid of the excess carbon dioxide. However, if our bodies make us yawn to drawn in needed oxygen, wouldn’t we yawn during exercise? Robert Provine, a psychologist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a leading expert on yawning, has tested this theory. Giving people additional oxygen didn’t decrease yawning and decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide in a subject’s environment also didn’t prevent yawning.
The Evolution Theory — Some think that yawning is something that began with our ancestors, who used yawning to show their teeth and intimidate others. An offshoot of this theory is the idea that yawning developed from early man as a signal for us to change activities.
The Boredom Theory — In the dictionary, yawning is said to be caused by boredom, fatigue or drowsiness. Although we do tend to yawn when bored or tired, this theory doesn’t explain why Olympic athletes yawn right before they compete in their event. It’s doubtful that they are bored with the world watching them.
Interesting Yawning Facts
* The average yawn lasts about six seconds.
* Your heart rate can rise as much as 30 percent during a yawn.
* 55 percent of people will yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn.
* Blind people yawn more after hearing an audio tape of people yawning.
* Reading about yawning will make you yawn.
* Olympic athletes often yawn before competition.
The simple truth is that even though humans have been yawning for possibly as long as they have existed, we have no clue as to why we do it. Maybe it serves some healthful purpose. It does cause us to draw in more air and our hearts to race faster than normal, but so does exercise. There’s still much we don’t understand about our own brains, so maybe yawning is triggered by some area of the brain we have yet to discover. We do know that yawning is not limited to man. Cats, dogs, even fish yawn, which leads us back to the idea that yawning is some form of communication.
Have we provoked a yawn out of you yet? If we have, hopefully it’s not out of boredom, but by the power of suggestion.
March 9th, 2010 at 2:12 PM
mentalBUZZ = No yawning!
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March 9th, 2010 at 8:57 PM
Yawning is one of the movements in the little known process of a pandiculation (http://bit.ly/9QxpDz). Healthy vertebrate animals use this process to arouse their cortex and reset the resting levels of their muscles.
In fact, we all did this act in our mother’s womb. As we age, we don’t engage this process for a whole host of reasons but healthy animals use it everyday and periodically throughout the day.
Hanna Somatic Educators® use this process in teaching people how to eliminate pain and increase physical performance. Thomas Hanna, who wrote the book Somatics, identified the pandicular response by understanding how the voluntary motor cortex can reset the output to the muscles.
Rather than stretching as it looks an animal is doing, it is actively engaging muscles and then releasing them. When the human animal is involved in this process and compliments it with her awareness then pain no longer becomes a mystery and easy, agile, and vital movement is accomplished.
This act is merely a learning process as to what sets up movement in the first place, so rather than exercise, one can pandiculate to ready one’s self for exercise. Check with a Hanna Somatic Educator® and you’ll amaze yourself with the animal experience of moving freely.
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