I think one of the most interesting questions I’ve come across when thinking about our bodies is why we yawn in the first place. The reason this question interests me so much is because I’ve noticed that many people yawn when they’re tired or sleepy, but does this action of yawning trigger some kind of regulation in our body to help us function? Does it wake us up? Is yawning contagious like the myth we all believe?
In my research I’ve found that there are a giant handful of studies and opinions on why we actually yawn and what it does for us. From the newest studies to the oldest studies, it seems as a sum of all of these study conclusions, yawning does in fact trigger some form of help in our bodies functions.
A new study done by Sir Francis Walshe, a British neurologist, has discovered something in one of those outside of the box studies that just so happened to stumble upon him in another research test. Walshe found that while he was doing trials on patients who were parylized, the patients, while yawning, would be able to obtain function in the side of their body that had been parylized. The best guess is that this is able to happen because of something in the brain. This kind of information is a giant break in the study of not only yawning, but the human body and has yet to be explained.
Another big researched area in yawning, is that yawning is linked to our ability to empathize with one another. One of the break through findings of this study was because children were observed and when these children became mature enough to develop the skill set to empathize, this skill set was paralleled with when these children began to yawn.
Not ONLY are these the other studies in yawning, but it is also a strong theory that we as a species, yawn to communicate. Just like when you look at a bed of new born kittens, who cannot yet see, one of these kittens yawns in the nest of cuddled kittens to signal that it is time for the whole litter to be tired and get some sleep. This translates over into humans and is thought that yawning is a form of communication amongst our species to signal that we are indeed feeling something others around us should feel.
Many other trials have been done with yawning, some leading towards success and some left at dead ends. A strong theory that we yawn to send a flow of oxygen to the brain and throughout our bodies, although a good theory, has yet to be more proved than disproved at this point in time. In fact, it is believed that another reason why our bodies yawn is because it sends a signal throughout our body that our brains need to be cooled down, resulting in a yawn. Why these two theories may have collided is because they both have to do with sleep. When we are tired, our brains tend to over heat, just like a piece of machinery that needs to be cooled down from over working.
Sources: http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-surprising-science-of-yawning
http://www.bing.com/th?id=JN.sJAbVUDpnIrFhLjs7nEdLQ&pid=15.1&P=0&w=300&h=300
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