It is estimated that we perform the act of yawning about 28 times a day under normal conditions, although we may seem rude, yawning cools the brain and is important for the health of this organ.
We spend 4 minutes of our daily time on this seemingly useless and often uncontrollable activity, and we do so throughout our lives, from the fifth month of pregnancy to the last days.
- We usually associate yawning with fatigue or boredom.
- But that is not entirely true; in fact.
- The fetus also yawns.
- As do most vertebrate animals (fish.
- Reptiles.
- Birds and mammals).
Although in many cultures yawning in public is considered rude, even very educated people inevitably do so.
In addition, yawning can be extremely contagious, it only takes someone to yawn around us to have the imperious desire to do the same.
Yawning is necessary for brain health and contributes to the proper development and maintenance of the brain throughout life.
The fetus has been yawning since the 20th week of pregnancy, and from there continues to yawn until childbirth.
The fetus does not yawn out of boredom or fatigue. Yawning at this stage of evolution stimulates brain development in a sequential and orderly program. Numerous studies indicate that yawning indicates harmonious progress in the development of the brain and peripheral nerves that regulate muscle movement.
The yawning of the fetus is so relevant that its absence is often associated with possible neural dysfunctions after birth.
After birth, the brain still needs us to yawn several times a day
There is a traditional belief that we do arcades to oxygenate the brain, however, this theory is unfounded, because we breathe constantly day and night, both through the nose and mouth, regardless of brain oxygenation.
Oxygen used by brain cells is mainly transported through the vascular network of 600 km blood vessels that coexist with the brain.
We no longer drown when we are in apnea while holding our breath or when we are in environments with less oxygen.
Some recent hypotheses suggest that yawning would allow us to move from a neural circuit of spontaneous basal activity to a mindfulness neural circuit.
According to Walusinski (2014), yawning increases the amount of fluid in the brain, allowing greater attention and concentration to perform tasks that require higher mental performance, one way or another, yawning would help us change tasks and maintain our attention.
In addition, other research shows that yawning cools the brain and helps regulate brain temperature.
You can take the following exam by U. S. researchers at the University of Albany. He must be surrounded by people who want to yawn.
Take a cold compress at 4 degrees C and place it on your forehead careful not to hurt your skin. The forehead is the area where there are more sweat glands to dissipate heat.
If there are people yawning around you, the cold compress can reduce your desire to yawn up to five times, however, this doesn’t happen when you place a block at 37 degrees C on your forehead.
This experiment shows that cooling the forehead would help cool the brain and eliminate contagious yawns. You can also try to breathe deeply through your nose to increase cooling. It can also work.
On the other hand, the increased ventilation that accompanies yawning would help dissipate some of the brain heat. Lack of sleep and mental fatigue after high intellectual activity also increase brain temperature.
As a result, the desire to yawn increases when we get up or lie down, or when we spend a lot of time working on a mental task, a normal and necessary activity, despite the codes of conduct.
It is important to note that excessive yawning (more than 3 times every 15 minutes continuously) can be a symptom of disease.
People with stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, migraine, brain tumor, intracranial hypertension, chronic insomnia or epilepsy tend to yawn much more than normal.
In the case of Parkinson’s disease, continuous excessive yawning is considered one of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
You shouldn’t be afraid if one day you yawn too much, as it may be simply because your brain needs to cool down due to mental fatigue. Yawning is a normal practice.
In addition, we choke more often when we take certain medications, such as antidepressants, opioids, or anxiolytics, even too much caffeine can increase the frequency of yawns.
We are glad that reading this article made you want to yawn, which means that you have aroused your interest and increased your mental activity.