Yawning is observed not only in humans but also in animals and birds. Yes, chimpanzees, hippos, parrots, dogs, cats, etc., all yawn. Yawning is part of our daily life & an average adult yawns 20 times daily. Oscitation is another name for yawning. This article will tell you why we yawn and why yawning is contagious. There is no specific reason why we yawn and why it’s contagious. However, many theories do try to explain it.
Let us see all the possible causes that lead us to yawn:
Yawning Causes
In the olden days, Hippocrates thought yawning helped to get good air in and bad air out. But later research made it clear that it is not the case.
Later, people assumed that yawning occurs to supply more oxygen to the brain. However, later experiments scrapped this cause as well. No difference was observed in the yawning frequency of the people who were given oxygenated air to breathe.
Cool down the brain
Currently, the most accepted reason for yawning is that it helps to cool down the brain.
Our brain heats up when we are tired, bored, or sleepy. Yawning helps to cool down the heated brain and thus helps us stay awake, alert, or active for some duration.
A major brain temperature reduction was observed after yawning in humans and animals.
Our brain operates best when it’s running at an optimal temperature. A heated-up brain may affect proper thinking, reasoning, and remembering.
Apart from yawning, our body also uses other ways to cool down, such as sweating, widening the blood vessels, and instincts to seek cooler air, e.g., turning on the air conditioner or the fan.
According to studies, a yawn helps send more blood to the brain, and as we breathe in cooler air while yawning, this cool air also goes to the brain with the blood, thus cooling the CPU of the human body.
Why are yawns contagious?
A yawn that comes on its own is the spontaneous yawn; when we yawn immediately after seeing someone else yawn is a contagious type of yawn. When we see someone yawn, we end up doing the same, and it seems their energy is transferred to us for no reason. Even the sound of a yawn can trigger contagious yawning.
Just like there is no specific reason why we yawn, researchers have not found a specific reason why it is contagious.
Many vertebrate animals shared a similar behavior of spontaneous yawning from the ancient evolution age- for whatever reason, it may occur. Some reasons for spontaneous yawning in animals could be cooling of the brain, fear, sexual arousal, scaring the enemies by showing the teeth, etc.
Social communication tool
Contagious yawning seems to be isolated to a few species, including humans, non-human primates, and some domesticated animals and birds.
What’s more interesting is that contagious yawning doesn’t really appear in human behavior until early childhood. Experts think that contagious yawning may be a way for the higher order animals to communicate socially.
Also, it is believed that contagious yawning helped our cave-dwelling ancestors to stay alert as a group to survive. Thus, contagious yawning increased the cognitive performance of the group as a whole.
Another possible cause of the contagious yawning may be the mirror neurons. We unconsciously tend to copy the behavior of the people around us. If we see someone sit cross-legged, we also feel like sitting cross-legged. If the person in front of us nods, we also unconsciously nod. Similarly, yawning may simply be mirroring the person yawning in our vicinity.
As per some psychological research, contagious yawning may be a way of showing empathy. As per Google, empathy means the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This theory also seems quite convincing as contagious yawning occurs more frequently among close friends or family or where the people are emotionally attached. Interestingly, even dogs also sometimes yawn seeing their owners yawn.
So, next time you yawn, try to understand whether you’re tired, bored, sleepy, or neither, or if it is just a contagious yawn. If it is a contagious yawn, maybe you are emotionally connected with the person who triggered the yawn. Thus you are showing empathy towards that person, or perhaps you are unconsciously mirroring the people around you. So, next time you yawn, think about all these things and decide for yourself which theory of yawning you want to believe the most.
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Author Profile
- Sofia Ali is an analyst by profession who has a love for creativity and enjoys writing on different topics such as engineering, science, history, self-help, healthcare, and much more. Believes strongly in the law of attraction and wants to create a difference in this world with her thoughts.
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