Try to stay awake for this

by mdr on Jul. 05th, 2007
in Life Science and Human Organism

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The Big Yawn: Photo by wiseacre photo at FlickrIt used to be that yawning while engaged in conversation with someone was considered a boorish act of total indifference or boredom. However, a new psychological study says it may actually be a compliment; a subconscious expression of your deep commitment to stay awake for every bit of the riveting conversation.

Conventional thinking has held that yawning is triggered by your brain’s desire for more oxygen, or an indication that you were tired or simply bored. But Andrew Gallup, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, thinks yawning is your body’s way to cool your brain and keep it functioning better.

Gallup’s study involved volunteers being shown videos of people yawning (mixed in with other behaviors such as laughing) in hopes that the yawning, as it often is, would be contagious. Some of the volunteers were asked to only breath through their noses (the blood vessels of which cools the air), while others were given a hot or cold pack to hold against their foreheads. Still others were just told to watch.

Researchers observing through a one-way mirror tabulated how many times the volunteers yawned.

Surprisingly, the volunteers who had cooled their brains either with the cold pack or nasal breathing, didn’t yawn much at all.

"The two conditions thought to promote brain cooling practically eliminated contagious yawning," the researchers wrote in the May issue of Evolutionary Psychology.

A cooler brain is a more alert brain, so yawning may just be your body’s way of keeping you more vigilant. That might also explain why it’s so contagious (in both humans and chimps). In prehistoric times, the reflex may have evolved to help groups of our ancestors stay more on their toes against intruding foes or predators.

Links to More (Y-A-W-N!!) Exciting Info

BBC story
Story at NewScientist.com
More on yawning
Sexy yawning research (now you're paying attention)
Another explanation for yawning
Celebrities yawning (obvious ploy to boost blog readership) (CAUTION: some harsh language in text)
Wikipedia explanation of yawning
An explanation of why yawning is contagious