Why do you yawn? explain the world to children
Why do you yawn? That’s a good question that your child has probably already asked you. Because there is no clear answer to this question. Sure, we yawn when we’re tired, but there are so many more reasons for yawning. Here we explain what they are.
“Mom, why do you yawn?” Children’s questions can sometimes be quite challenging – this applies to this question, for example. Because it’s not that easy to explain. It is not enough to answer: “Because you are tired.” Also, you are not automatically bored as soon as you yawn.
Why do you yawn?
Most of the time we yawn when we get tired. But even researchers do not know why this is so. For a long time they have pondered the question “Why do you yawn?” and to this day they still owe us an answer.
The only thing that is clear is that we don’t just yawn when we’re tired. Stress, boredom, hunger, etc. can also trigger a hearty yawn. It has long been thought that yawning is caused by a lack of oxygen in the brain. However, that is not true. It is also wrong that we yawn with others out of empathy.
What are the functions of yawning?
There are several assumptions from research circles as to why we yawn. As WeLT writes in an article , yawning has something to do with our brain chemistry. “This shows us that it’s a very complicated system and that yawning probably has many different functions,” WeLT quoted Gregory Collins, a researcher at the University of Texas.
Yawning cools our brain down
According to Andrew Gallup, a psychologist at New York State University, our brains tend to overheat easily. Even a minimal change in our brain temperature, which is 37 degrees, has an impact on our reaction time and performance. We yawn so that our temperature levels off again. This is how cold air flows into our brain and cools the blood.
Gallup drew this conclusion from a study with rats in 2010, in which he examined the brain temperature. A study from Vienna with 120 people also confirms this assumption. It turned out that people yawn more in summer than in winter.
But it’s not just the outside temperature that affects our brain temperature, Gallup knows. Factors such as stress or anxiety can also heat up our brain. In addition, our brain temperature is higher on average at night, which is why we yawn extensively in the morning to cool our brain down, according to the researcher.
Yawning stretches our brain
Yawning stretches our brain: This assumption also comes from Gallup, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine writes . According to this, yawning not only serves to regulate the temperature of our brain, but also to improve blood circulation – similar to how stretching affects our muscles. Our brain receives more glucose and oxygen thanks to yawning – so more energy! So it could explain why we yawn when we’re bored or tired.
Also according to Gallup’s findings, the more complex our brain, the more often we have to yawn in order to “stretch” it.
Why is yawning contagious?
Perhaps you are like me and this article alone will provoke a series of yawn attacks in you. Or you have to yawn whenever another person – no matter whether they are standing in front of you or can be seen on TV – yawns. Either way, one thing is certain: for some reason, yawning is contagious.
However, no researcher has yet been able to definitively explain why this is the case. However, the relationship with the other person should play a role: the closer the relationship, the more likely we are to yawn. It is possible that we unconsciously simply reflect the behavior of the other person and thus show that we belong, according to netdoktor.at, for example . Thus, yawning has a social function.