Think about somebody yawning realllly big….. Did you just yawn also? Why?

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Answer 1

One idea is that yawning evolved in humans to sync up our sleep cycles.

When we’re waking up, yawning tends to make us more awake. When we’re about to go to sleep, yawning tends to make us more sleepy. Evolving to reflexively yawn when we see others yawn could have helped our ancestors get on the same sleep schedule. This likely aided us when it came to doing group activities like building homes or hunting together.