You toss and turn in bed all night. Yesterday's meeting was too long. Someone near yawned - and you can not do anything except how to yawn in response. Usually, when yawning overtakes you, you know exactly (or think you know exactly) why this is happening, but how can you explain that you can start yawning, even just reading an article on this topic!
But the scientific side of the question is not always so clear. For a long time, people believed that this was a sign of a lack of oxygen in the body, but yawning is something that is not entirely associated with breathing. Today, scientists believe that the first and second control individual mechanisms in the body and brain. And while people feel bouts of yawning, when they are bored or want to sleep, they also involuntarily yawn, even doing something energetic or interesting. The same applies to athletes before the competition, or you can cite as an example Sasha Obama, who was yawning during the father's inaugural speech, Barack Obama.
You really like this person
Yawning is really very contagious. Experts believe that by evolving, we learned to “understand” the yawn of some people as a sign of their sympathy for others. And this whole mechanism is controlled by social connections. Further studies have confirmed that you are more likely to yawn in response to a loved one than to a stranger. In 2011, it turned out that we are yawning most often because of our relatives, then a little less because of friends, and unfamiliar people complete the list: it’s harder for them to make us yawn.
It's time for your brain to cool
In search of a scientific explanation for why we are yawning, the most recent theory tells us that yawning just cools our brain, giving it some fresh air. In order to test this theory, in 2011, a study was conducted, during which it became clear that people yawn more during the cold season and less during the warm season. In addition, deprivation (interruption) of sleep can raise the temperature of the brain, and a good yawn will help us cool our heads to normal temperatures.
You have a big brain
The journal Biology Letters reports that the more you yawn, the bigger your brain. The researchers found that mammals that yawn (just like humans) have a massive brain and a large number of brain cells. If we take into account that the yawn really cools the brain in order to feed it with energy, it turns out that the larger the brain, the more neurons will require oxygen for normal functioning. And in order to help them with this, we are yawning.
You may have a heart attack.
Or a stroke. Or a tumor. But don't be in a hurry to faint from fear of yawning - only an excessive glutter, which lasts much longer than you can imagine, can indicate problems of this nature.
A heart attack can stimulate the vagus nerve, which travels from the brain to the stomach, leading to a reaction, a symptom of which is such a prolonged yawning.
Researchers used MRI to study the location of tumors in the brain. But the question of how they can interfere with the message lines of the body so that the result is a yawn, is still relevant.
People with epilepsy and sclerosis also often report that they repeatedly yawn. These conditions (as well as headache and even anxiety) are somehow related to the problems of regulating the temperature of the brain. Hence the conclusion: excessive yawning may be an attempt of our body to restore balance.
Any of the above theories can play the role of a great excuse if you decide to sweetly yawn at a meeting (especially the theory of the big brain).
The article is based on materials .
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