Why people yawn when they are sleepy? Are there any biological reasons behind yawning?
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Yes! In an airplane, you may involuntarily yawn to equalize pressure within your ears. We also yawn when we see someone else yawn and this is called social empathy. Scientists speculate that we yawn not from sleepiness or boredom, but that it’s a reflex your brain induces to wake you up. There are some hormones that are released that briefly increase heart rate and alertness.
When we’re tired, our brains need more oxygen to stay awake and alert. Oxygen is like fuel for our bodies and helps our brains work well. Yawning helps us take in more oxygen and wake up our brains.
But that’s not all! Yawning also helps our bodies get rid of something called carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a waste gas that builds up inside our bodies when we’re not breathing deeply enough. Yawning helps us get rid of that extra carbon dioxide and feel more refreshed.
Sometimes when you see someone yawn, it can make you yawn too! It’s like a contagious feeling. Scientists think it happens because our brains are really good at copying what other people do. So when we see someone yawn, our brains tell us to yawn too, even if we’re not sleepy. It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?
When you sleep your body does not require as much oxygen as it would when you are awake and active so your respiratory system slows down. One theory is that when we get tired our bodies begin to pivot to this period of low resource usage but if we are still awake will cause us to yawn as a means to get an influx of oxygen that we need.
Edit: I realized that it’s an old theory… more reading led me to the idea that it’s the body trying to stay awake not as much reacting to trying to be awake.
Yawning tells your body that it’s ok to relax. It widens your rib cage and sends a signal to your brain that it got a full breath. Wide jaw and rapid exhalation of breath calms the nervous system.
I read a somewhat newer theory (I think) that it may have evolved as a way to alert others in a group that the sentry is getting tired.
mostly to intake more oxygen amd make our body less tired. it is also an evolutionary social gesture. I read somewhere that we tend to follow up a yawn of a friend/family more than a stranger. I did noticed this later on few occasions.
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Aside all the other excellent answers in the comments section, I’ll add a little something that I’ve been told by my biology teachers a few years ago.
She said that some studies were suggesting that yawning could also have been a way to tell the group it’s time to rest/sleep.
Its contagiosity would be rooted in the need to rest “the weakest” of the group in terms of energy, since it’s getting tired, thus less effective in task achieving. By resting them, it’d also be a two birds with one stone moment: the group gets a shot at resting too, so that everyone resumes rested and ready to go.
Also, it’d be contagious so that the signal is sent to the group at dusk. One starts to yawn out of sleepiness, the others do too, and gradually sleepiness sets in. It’d be so that the group (minus the sentries) rests at once and thus can be effective as a whole.
I can answer this one! A frequent cause of yawning is your brain “Oh fuck I need more oxygen.”-ing mich how coughing or wincing are involuntary reactions, so is a yawn. It’s about getting as much oxygen into a brain deprived of the stuff.
Something else you learned today, asthmatics can break into a yawn if they sing too much for that very reason.
Yawning is pretty universal to all primates and many other mammals. The reason is unknown. One theory is that yawning is controlled by the hypothalamus (area of the brain focused on emotional regulation) to help with breathing. Another is that it helps signal to others that you are tired. But it’s unknown.
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