Member-only story
Why are Yawns Contagious?
Don’t worry, you won’t be yawning when you read this… or will you?
My wife has been off caffeine for the last couple weeks as a self-experiment. She is yawning a heck of a lot more. I am talking multiple times a minute. That means I am yawning a heck of a lot more as well.
But why is that? I am not more tired than usual and, unlike my wife who likes to live life on the edge, I am drinking my delicious coffee every morning. But as she yawns, my yawn frequency goes up. This may be because humans mimic one another, or maybe I am doing it in solidarity with her caffeine-free situation. Turns out that yawns are a lot more exciting than they appear to be.
Yawning is a pretty complex set of involuntary actions, including a wide opening of the mouth and maximal widening of jaw, along with a deep inhalation through the mouth and nose, followed by a slow exhalation, which often gives a feeling of comfort. We perceive yawning to be due to boredom and getting ready for a nap, but the physiological reason it occurs is actually the opposite.
Yawning turns out to have the same physiological effect as consuming caffeine. Both cause a significant increase in the blood flow detected in the skin, along with an increased frequency of alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with mindfulness…
