Why people yawn when they are sleepy? Are there any biological reasons behind yawning?
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We aren’t sure.
Some people think we might yawn because we take a nice deep breath when we do and it helps get extra air in and wake us up. Some people think we yawn to signal to other people that we are sleepy, as a social mechanism to ‘share’ that sleepy feeling with other people so we all get to sleep as a group. Sleeping in a group is warmer and safer.
But we also yawn when we wake up. This can help us limber up and make our eyes water a bit, a good thing to moisturize and clean out sleepy eyes.
Yawning is weird, because it can be triggered by seeing someone yawn, or even thinking about yawning too much. It activates part of our brain with ‘mirror neurons’ that help lifeforms with them ‘feel’ what other people are feeling.
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