Why do you think we yawn?

Question

Do you think yawning is contagious?

I do because if i'm in doctor's office and I yawn I soon after see someone else do it too............

Answer 1

The need to exhale is caused by a buildup of Carbon Dioxide in the lungs

When you are tired, you inhale and exhale slowly and small-ly, this leads to a bit of a buildup

The yawn is just to clear out the CO2 and inhale some yummy oxygen

Yawning does seem to be contagious, but in fact the amount of CO2 you exhale in a yawn would (in any reasonable sized room) not be enough to, when inhaled by Yawner #2, make them yawn

Answer 2

It is clinically unknown why we yawn. There are several theories.

1. Essentially all animals yawn. So, it is believed that it may be beneficial in some way. One theory is that yawning increases the oxygen concentration of your blood. Another theory is that yawning causes your eyes to water and thus it could help lubricate your eyes, which often dry out when you are tired.

2. According to Darwin (strongest of the fittest theory), yawning may serve to illustrate to others that we are fatigued. When others see us yawn and then yawn themselves, it may be how they demonstrate their sympathy for our tiredness.

Answer 3

First, let's list some interesting facts about yawning.

Things you probably never knew:

    * 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.

Now, let's look at what a yawn is. Yawning is an involuntary action that causes us to open our mouths wide and breathe in deeply. We know it's involuntary because we do it even before we are born. Research shows that 11-week-old fetuses yawn.

There are many parts of the body that are in action when you yawn. First, your mouth opens and jaw drops, allowing as much air to be taken in as possible. When you inhale, the air taken in is filling your lungs. Your abdominal muscles flex and your diaphragm is pushed down. The air you breath in expands the lungs to capacity and then some of the air is blown back out.

So WHY do we yawn???

THE TRUTH IS that we don’t completely understand why people, or animals for that matter, yawn.

It’s widely assumed that yawning occurs because we are tired or bored or because we see someone else doing it, but there isn’t any hard evidence to support these beliefs.

Scientists do not know all of the biological mechanisms of the yawn, but tend to agree that a yawn is an involuntary respiratory reflex, which regulates the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the blood.

Technically, once again a yawn is the reflex opening of the mouth followed by the deep inhalation and slow exhalation of oxygen.

The very act of yawning is but one of a number of involuntary reflexes controlled by the spinal and nerve centers.

Scientists speculate that the onset of a yawn is triggered either by fatigue, or by sheer boredom as, at those times, breathing is shallow, and little oxygen is carried to the lungs by the oxygen-toting cardiovascular system.

When one yawns, his or her alertness is heightened, as the sudden intake of oxygen increases the heart rate, rids the lungs and the bloodstream of the carbon dioxide buildup, and forces oxygen through blood vessels in the brain, while restoring normal breathing and ventilating the lungs.

This quite plausible theory of yawning falls short of explaining many aspects of yawning. Scientists explain away the "contagious" nature of yawning, that is when one person's yawn triggers another nearby to yawn, as due to the power of suggestion, but are at a loss when attempting to explain why yawning occurs excessively in patients with lower brainstem damage or with multiple sclerosis.

Other unlocked mysteries include why fetuses in the womb yawn, when it is a well-known fact that they do not intake oxygen into their lungs until after live birth, or why individuals with high concentrations of oxygen in their blood streams yawn.

Until these questions are answered, do not assume that a person who yawns in your presence is bored with what you are saying, or suffers from exhaustion. Simply be pleased that he or she is not bored to death.

Answer 4

Either you did not get enough sleep at night or you're having trouble falling asleep because I know I use to have trouble falling asleep.