I have to admit, these writings have been pretty boring recently \u2014 I imagine they have produced a yawn or two. Well, that got me to thinking\u2026. why do people yawn anyway? And did you ever notice that yawning seems to be contagious? I think\u00a0 it even has an official term \u2014 \u201ccontagious yawning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may think that people yawn because they\u2019re tired or bored, but the traditional medical explanation is that oxygen levels in their lungs are low. However, some of my extensive research on the subject discovered that babies yawn before they\u2019re even born. They pick up the habit as early as 11 weeks after conception. If I\u2019m not mistaken, babies don\u2019t take in oxygen through their lungs and I don\u2019t see how they\u2019d get tired \u2014 they pretty much sleep all day. I\u2019m not sure if they get bored or not\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It appears that the bottom line is that scientists don\u2019t really understand why we yawn. I did find an interesting \u201cstudy\u201d though \u2014 it found that 55 percent of people will yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else do it. Sometimes just hearing, thinking or reading about a yawn is enough to make people unconsciously yawn themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though scientists don\u2019t know exactly why<\/em>, they have come up with a few theories. Dr. Gordon Gallup and his team at the University of Albany say that contagious yawning evolved as a way to \u201cmaintain group vigilance.\u201d Gallup thinks yawning keeps our brains working at cool, efficient, and alert levels. So in the days of early man, contagious yawning helped raise the attentiveness and danger-detecting abilities of the whole group. I\u2019m not too sure about that one\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans aren\u2019t the only ones that yawn \u2014 foxes, sea lions, hippos, dogs and cats are some of the animals that do it. There are some studies that demonstrate some animals, like dogs and chimpanzees, may also suffer from contagious yawning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But it looks like yawning is here to stay\u2026 when I see someone yawn I always think of an old joke \u2014 A wife was talking to her husband and after a few minutes she said, I was talking to you and I saw you yawn 5 times \u2014 was I boring you? And the husband said, I wasn\u2019t yawning, those were unsuccessful attempts to speak. I have to admit, these writings have been pretty boring recently \u2014 I imagine they have produced a yawn or two. Well, that got me to thinking\u2026. why do people yawn anyway? And did you ever notice that yawning seems … Continue reading
One theory is that contagious yawning is more common among those who demonstrate a greater ability to understand and share other people\u2019s feelings. I suppose that makes some amount of sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"