Why Do We Yawn And Why Is It So Contagious?

Whether you're tired, or simply bored: Yawning is something all humans (and most animals) do.

We can't control it, we can hardly trigger it on purpose and once it has begun, we also can't stop it.
But a question that many of you have probably asked themselves before (I know I have) is: Why do we even yawn?
It's a weird reflex of opening our mouth, so what are the benefits from it?
Often, we also feel the urge to start yawning when someone around us has just yawned. Why is that? Is yawning "contagious" ?

Why do we yawn?

Many people actually believe that we yawn to get more oxygen - but that's an outdated theory!
The real answer is that we yawn because or brain is overheated.
When we are exhausted or suffer from sleep deprivation, the temperature inside our brain rises.
But our brain functions best at a very specific temperature level - not too hot and not too cold!
So when we yawn, that's actually a way for our body to cool down the brain, therefore making us more alert and make our brain process information easier and quicker.

How does that work?

When we yawn, we increase the blood flow to our skull through extending our jaw and stretching the jaw muscles.
The air that we intake then goes to our oral- and nasal caveties, which are equipped with certain membranes that allow the cool air to travel up to our forebrain (the biggest part of our brain).
Studies have actually shown that people with an ice pack on their head were only 9% likely to yawn, while another group of subjects that had a hot compress on their head yawned 41% of the time!
That's a huge difference, and supports the theory of our brains using yawning to cool down!

Why is yawning contagious?

Before answering this question, let's see the contagious-yawning-effect in action. How long you can watch a video of people yawning before you need to yawn yourself?!

So, how long did you last? Comment below!

The reason WHY yawning contagious is actually still being researched. But there are several different theories to this phenomenon:

Theory #1: Yawning as a group warning

Like explained above, the reason we yawn is mostly to stay alert and to keep our brain functioning at its optimum level.
So when one person in a group is yawning, it's like he's signaling to the others: "Stay alert! Stay ready!"
This theory is based on evolutionary reasons, when humans had to fight for their survival on a daily basis.
They had to stay alert at all times, in order to escape from wild animals or other possible dangers.

Theory #2: Yawning unconsciously

Whenever we're around other people, we unconsciously tend to mimic their behaviour.
Scientists who study body language have found this out long ago - if you're talking to someone and they have their arms crossed, chances are you'll cross yours as well at some point during the conversation.
This effect is called non-conscious mimicry, and might also apply to yawning - when you see someone else yawn, you imitate them without even realizing.
This phenomenon appears due to the so-called "Mirror Neurons" in our brain: these are specific neurons that perform in the same way when we see an action, as when we execute the action ourselves.

Theory #3: The Empathy yawn

This is probably the most popular theory.
It suggests that we are more prone to contagious yawning when we're around people that we're familiar with: family, friends, and then strangers, in that order.
'Contagious yawning' begins when kids are about 4-5 years old - around the same age that they start to understand other people's emotions.
And kids with a disorder like autism which makes them less able to analyze and understand other people's emotions were a lot less likely to yawn when watching a video of people yawning, like the one above.
A very interesting study has proven the same thing:
Researchers had a group of people take an empathy test. But within the test subjects was one person who actually worked in cooperation with the researchers. That person purposely yawned once a minute, for 10 minutes.
The people that scored highest on the empathy test, were also the ones that contagiously yawned the most!

We don't know yet if any of these theories is really true, or if the cause for contagious yawning might be something else.

But whatever the case may be - the facts are that yawning is triggered by others yawning, and it's a way for our brain to keep its cool and function at its optimum temperature!

Did this post make you yawn?

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

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