Sleepy, bored, hot, or a power move; all theoretical reasons we yawn, but which one is it?
Some say that yawning is tool our body uses to control the temperature in the brain. Andrew Gallup and Gary Hack, both from theUniversity of Maryland, have studied the effects of yawning on rats and found that the temperature increased and decreased with yawns, solidifying the theory… at least in rats. A test that was run on humans showed 2 women that we yawning for up to 45 minutes at a time as many at 15 times a day. These women had temperature regulation issues in their brain. Much like the rat experiment, these women took oral temperatures before and after a yawn spell and yawning reduced their temperature.
(baby yawns in utero)
Others believe that yawning is an innate skill that we just do. It’s a biological program that we can’t control. I asked some of my coworkers to yawn and they all laughed at me, then sat with their mouths open waiting, no luck. That was, by no means, a great experiment model, but it showed me first-hand that yawning is an unconscious behavior. In fact, despite my best efforts, I have yawned more than 10 times since I started working on this blog post.
There are other scientists that believe yawning is a power move, much like the poses we saw in class, that is used to show dominance. This tactic is used often in the animal world, especially with primates, the animal that many believe humans evolved from. It’s all in the teeth with primates, as teeth are a sign of strength and the stronger teeth the more dominate and the more likely to be the alpha male.
What might be my favorite theory is that yawning is not necessarily contagious, but more a form of social bonding, because who wants to be lonely? We yawn when others yawn because if one person is calm enough to yawn it diffuses stress and brings calm, allowing the next person to relax and peace spreads, according to this theory.
So I suppose that if you yawned while reading this it could be because my writing calmed you and you are at peace, or your brain is over-heating and it needs some fresh air. Either way, I hope it isn’t because you are trying to threaten me… I’m just trying to pass this class!
Hi, very interesting topic. I believe a lot of scientists doing lots of research on yawn. Your blog illustrate different meaning of yawning which is pretty good. I hardly forget that yawning is showing off teeth among primate animal. I believe yawning is infectious. Scientists come up with several different conclusions why yawnig is infectious. The most interesting conclusion I think is yawning is a left over mechanism from our days as troupe creatures. Infectious yawning meant that we slept togther as a group when the most tired required to sleep. Here is the where I found http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-70784,00.html hope can help you learn more
This is a very interesting topic that really draws me in. I never understood why yawning is deemed contagious until I did some research on the topic. “Contagious yawning gets at the ancient, deep, and subconscious roots of empathy and social bonding.” http://news.discovery.com/human/health/yawning-social-behavior.htm So its saying that the closer more personal relationships people have to one another can cause more susceptibility to contagious yawning. In the experiment about the 2 women, I am wondering if the temperature increases and difference had a positive or negative effect on their body or if it were to have different results if their was a control and an experimental group involved?
Interesting post. I’m glad that you showed all of the possible theories. This is an interesting topic that it seems we will never find the “true” answer to, but we may learn more and more about yawning through future experiments. The experiment about the 2 women who had temperature regulation problems was very interesting. It made me wonder if an experiment could be done where two groups would take their temperatures, then one group would be told to yawn as frequently as they could for a period of time, and see if their temperature decreased significantly compared to the control group, who would not have yawned as frequently.