Believe it or not, scientists don’t know yet (for sure) why we or our pets yawn. Although there are several hypothesis, a clear understanding of yawning is missing!
We all feel it coming: that sudden need to unhinge the jaw and suck in as much air as our lungs can take in.
But, why do we do it?!
Yawning: The Biggest Mystery of the Human Body?
Yawning is a present human activity and also common in numerous other species. However, the few hypotheses that have been proposed to as why we’re doing it have been tested and left researchers with additional unanswered questions.
There are indeed many ideas to as why we’re yawning, but not a lot of evidence to back these claims up. And, to this day, there’s no consensus on why we do it.
The Most Popular Theories about Yawning
- I need oxygen
One of the oldest yawning theories is that it helps boost the blood flow to the brain. However, research didn’t find enough evidence to back up this thesis.
One 1987 study tested this idea on 18 college students.
They were asked to breathe in air with various levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide and the researchers didn’t disclose what concentrations they inhaled.
At the end, the different concentrations had no influence on how often the students yawned and showed that yawning wasn’t actually a need of the body to get more oxygen.
- To cool down
Researchers from Austria and the US collaborated in 2014 for a report on yawning.
They surveyed 120 people on how often they yawned after seeing images of others yawning and it was done during winter or summer.
They concluded that the reactionary yawns were higher in summer than they were in winter or 41.7 percent to 18.3 percent. This suggested that yawning may have something to do with regulating our body’s temperature.
Several years later, another team of scientists tested this temperature-regulating theory with people who had medically-induced fevers. They were either injected with one agent that causes fever or with a placebo.
The scientists closely monitored the patients to see how often they yawned in the period of four hours after the shot.
Those who had fever yawned more than the placebo group.
And, the authors also found that the higher yawning frequency led to lower symptoms of illness and nausea in those with fever.
This raised another question: is yawning beneficial for other parts of our bodies?
- A social sway
Many of you have probably found themselves yawning while reading this. And, it’s no wonder since yawning is contagious.
It’s just takes to think about it or see someone do it and you’ll do it too.
Some studies found that dogs pick up yawns from their owners while chimpanzees catch yawns from each other.
Some scientists have posed a theory that it’s because of empathy. Both humans and chimpanzees have a tendency to be more prone to yawns of those they’re closer with.
Anyway, despite no single reason to as why we yawn, one thing’s for sure: it’s really difficult to escape it once it grips us!
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