What is the body trying to accomplish? How are they caused? What is actually happening? And why are they “contagious”?
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The best I’ve heard is it’s to cool down your brain. When you get tired, you’re inefficient and your brain runs hot.the palate of your mouth works like a heat sink when you open your mouth.
Just a theory, but seems right to me.
So we aren’t entirely sure why we yawn, but there are a few theories. One leading theory is that it is a mechanism to increase oxygen supply to the brain. When we are tired, our bodies slow our heart rate and therefore decrease oxygen delivery. The deep breath that occurs with a yawn allows for an increase in blood oxygen and therefore oxygen delivery to the brain while also expelling a large volume of carbon dioxide, effectively increasing brain blood O2 levels.
Yawns are most likely contagious among social creatures like humans, dogs, etc. If you see someone else yawn and you’re comfortable with them, it makes you want to yawn to show you’re also comfortable and to fit in. However, this is just a theory. Mythbusters did an experiment with this and found yawns can be contagious even if people don’t see each other.
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