Festival of the Arts - Post 3

Why Do We Yawn? ι ( ¯ ö¯)ﾉ

Why Do We Yawn?

*YAAAAAAAAAWN!* Yawning. The most BORING thing ever. Have you ever wondered why we yawn though? Or when we yawn when we wake up? Or even when we yawn during class then.. BOOM! Someone else randomly yawns! It’s weird right? Well we yawn everyday and it’s actually helpful for our body!

Still wondering why? Well keep reading…

Yawning. We do it everyday, but first of all why?   

Yawning actually helps our brains. When our brain is exhausted it gets overheated. Just like a computer our brain works best at a certain temperature. When we yawn we, we breathe air and that air cools down our brains. Exhaustion and Sleep Deprivation both increase our brain temperature. Our brain is not working when we are bored or exhausted, so it gets overheated.  (Just like when you leave a computer running but you are not using it, it gets overheated). The human body takes in less oxygen when we are bored or exhausted because our breathing is being slowed down. Soooo…. Basically we yawn to keep our brains cool! Keeping our brains cool is important so that they can function well, so we can learn and focus better. It also keeps us aware of what we are doing!

So.. why is it contagious? Why does my classmate yawn right after I do?  Some people say it’s not contagious, some people say it is. So what’s the truth?..

As far as we know, contagious yawning is true. Contagious yawning is most likely linked to Empathy. Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings of another person. Contagious yawning begins when you are around 4-5 years old. This is when empathetic behaviour begins to develop. Research shows that children with empathy related disorders such as Autism, yawn less compared to others. Research also shows that you are more likely to copy the yawn of someone socially/genetically close to you. Eg. Family, friends, classmates! The mirror neurons are also linked to contagious yawning. Our mirror neurons in our brain activate when we do an action, see someone else doing the action, or hear someone talk about the action. Our mirror neurons help us with our learning, self awareness, and relating to others. When we see or hear someone else yawn the mirror neurons in our brain become activated and as a result we copy the yawn.

This is why we yawn, and why it is contagious. Next time you yawn during class and someone else yawns, you’ll know why! How many times did you yawn while reading this? Well now you are an expert on yawning…

Fun Fact…

Humans are not the only ones that yawn.. Animals yawn too! Whaaaaaaaaat!