Comments on: Why Do We Yawn?

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:09:10 +0000

There is no definitive answer to that question, I’m afraid, just various theories…

By: Courtney

Courtney — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:54:06 +0000

So, what makes it contagious?

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:04:51 +0000

Courney – add air pressure changes, oxygen/CO2 levels changing, air movements, temperature change, any other external stimulus that would affect everyone (and other mammals) in a shared environment…

By: Courney

Courney — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:28:55 +0000

Im trying to figure out how we could explan yawning is contagious [if it is.] But I cant do that if people dont even know why we yawn. My first step would have to be this, and people dont even have a straight answer. All I really have so far is that there are many scientists that have a lot of very different theories. In some which include, tired, drowsiness, or boredem.

By: jamie

jamie — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:24:30 +0000

hey guys there is a fact that you heart rate rises by 30% so maybe people yawn because their heart isn’t going fast enough for the activities they are about to do although this doesn’t answer the question if your bored but maybe people do it when they wake up for that reason.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:03:46 +0000

Do animals besides mammals yawn? Do birds or iguanas yawn? I know my cat yawns.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:49:47 +0000

I yawn every time I think about yawning…I yawned 6 times reading this article! :) .

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:03:21 +0000

I never said there was something special about human, as opposed to yawning in other animals. If anything it seems to be an innate trait of lots of mammals, although I’m not sure whether I’ve ever seen a pigmy shrew yawn…maybe they do. It could be that yawning is simply a stretch, no more, no less, and perhaps it’s contagious because it acts as a reminder that we should all stretch. But, while dog owners may observe mutual yawn infectiousness, I certainly don’t feel the urge to stretch my back when my dog does her down-face dog posture, and that’s probably just as useful a stretch as a yawn.

By: NE

NE — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:58:37 +0000

While you’re right there’s no way to know if Mech is right, you seem to be presuming here that yawning has a special reason in humans. To me as I suspect Mech, this doesn’t make much sense. We don’t know for sure why animals (includign humans) yawn. The teeth theory is one of them and there are a bunch of others. But since other animals do yawn, including chimps http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6182 there’s a good chance we yawn for the same reason. Presuming our ancerstors’ yawned it’s unlikely we evolved out of that behaviour in such a small space of time only to ‘bring it back’ for another reason. As for the dog things, actually human yawning is contagious to dogs http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7541633.stm

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:30:54 +0000

There was news just recently that answered the question “Why do we yawn?” with the simple answer: “to stay awake”. It’s a possible. But it still doesn’t explain why yawning is infectious.