Many mysteries remain in medicine, including yawning and all the riddles surrounding it, particularly in terms of its spread.
Many people may have pondered why we yawn and whether it is contagious.
There are several possibilities to solve this topic, however there is little meaningful research on the subject.
According to a paper published on the page of the University of South Carolina in the United States, there are several agreed-upon causes of yawning.
First, there is an undeniable source of yawning, and that is social empathy, so if you watch someone yawn or read about yawning (like you are doing now), you may yawn as well.
Psychologists have also shown that the more empathic you are, the more likely you are to yawn or become contagious when someone else yawns, such as a family member or acquaintance.
Second, while changing altitude rapidly, such as on an aeroplane, you will freely (intentionally) yawn as well as involuntarily (not purposefully) yawn in order to equalise the pressures within your ear, which is an appropriate cause to yawn.
Furthermore, it is obvious that yawning is related with tiredness and boredom.
However, it is widely accepted that yawning is not an indication of tiredness or boredom, but rather an automatic reflex induced by your brain to wake you up or make you more awake.
This is related to the typical phenomena of yawning while waking up from a nap or sleep. This is another more proof that yawning is an involuntary stimulation and excitement, rather than the opposite.
The last explanation is that yawning is a cooling reaction to a hot brain.
This is untested, and while there are occasional cases of yawning in heat-related situations, we do not notice yawning when running or playing in the sun.
Deep breaths and an open mouth can temporarily chill the brain, but the evidence that this is a true cause of yawning is lacking.
Meanwhile, improving oxygen in the blood or removing carbon dioxide is a conceivable but unconfirmed notion as to what causes yawning.
This makes logical because yawning draws in more oxygen with deep breathing and exhales more carbon dioxide than regular breathing, yet studies have shown that putting people in low oxygen or high carbon dioxide situations does not promote yawns.
Most individuals yawn as a natural reaction. However, if you are yawning excessively for no apparent cause, you should see your doctor to ensure that nothing odd is going on.
Why do we yawn, and is it truly contagious? What is its relevance to brain cooling?
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