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Subscribe to RSSA yawn could be more than a sign of sleepiness or a show of boredom. A new study suggests it could be a way for your brain to cool off. According to this brain-cooling theory, yawning pays off because it helps control the temperature of your brain so you think more clearly.
Researchers also noticed seasonal variations in the frequency of yawning. People appear to yawn more frequently in the winter after spending long periods of time outside in colder weather than they do in the summer heat.
"People are less likely to yawn when the surrounding air temperatures exceeds body temperature because taking a deep inhalation of air warmer than your own body would not result in cooling," says Andrew Gallup, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
The study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, took place in Tucson, Ariz., a climate where the thermometer routinely exceeds human body temperature of 98.6 F. Researchers compared the rates of contagious yawning in 80 people who were outdoors in "winter conditions," in Tucson, meaning milder temperatures and slightly higher humidity, to 80 people in "early summer," which has hotter weather and relatively low humidity.
Researchers asked people walking on the street to complete a survey about contagious yawning. The questionnaire included 20 photos of people yawning, and contained questions about how long participants had been outside prior to the survey, how much sleep they had the night before, and how often they yawned during the experiment.
People yawn for two main reasons: They do it spontaneously because of fatigue, stress, changes in mental or physical activity, and following a circadian rhythm in the body's internal clock, says Gallup, the study's lead author. Yawning can also be socially contagious. Seeing, hearing, reading, or thinking about yawning can cause you to do the same. (And yawning during take-off and landing is a helpful trick to "pop" your ears when flying causes air pressure changes.)
Scientists found that during the winter, nearly half of the study participants reported yawning during the experiment compared to about a quarter of them in the summer. Yawning also seemed to be linked to the amount of time spent outdoors exposed to those climate conditions.
Gallup explains that yawning may act like a car radiator by removing blood from the brain that's too hot while introducing cooler blood from the lungs as well as the arms and legs. Much like an overheated engine, an overheated brain doesn't function well.
"Yawning functions to promote attention and mental efficiency by reinstating optimal brain temperature," Gallup points out. "So it should be considered a compliment rather than an insult."
If you yawned while reading this article, it could mean that you're simply sharpening your brain power to be more alert.
Readers, have you ever been caught yawning at a poorly timed moment?
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Leave a Comment:
"Winter brings more yawns than summer, study claims"
I wonder how much this 'study' cost?
The study of "yawning", don't those researchers have anything better to do or of more significance?
My opinion.
Research was done by Princeton University. I doubt if cost was really an obstacle there.
Maybe its because I'm so nerdilicious, but I feel this is an excellent study that gives insight into human psychology, evolution and brain biology. These are the types of studies that make mankind advance and discover more about himself and his roots. yawn-- thinking so hard makes me sleepy!
wow, my life is so much better after reading this (lol) what did this study cost taxpayers, 20 million?
Because research done at a private university will definitely come out of the taxpayer's pocket.
Exactly. Princeton University. Not exactly state funded.
I am convinced that there are lots of people, so-called "researchers" who do nothing more than live on grant money given to them to conduct research into some of the most trivial, mundane, irrelevant crap they can come up with. And it's usually done on something that's next to impossible to prove wrong. What a life! I guess the most difficult thing involved in this "occupation" is convincing the people who fund these different projects that what they are going to research is of utmost importance, and necessary for (whatever) so I guess being a good salesman or con artist also helps in this line of work.
I'm quite interested in what you do for a living Kevin. You seem short on endorphins. There have been many studies recently to examine whether people like you are genetically miserable or if you folks have some control over your chronic pessimism and blatant disregard for facts. Scientists are the polar opposite of con artists-- we just tell it like the evidence seems best to indicate-- it's politicians, bankers, and folks like you, Kevin, that twist facts to make the "other guys" look bad.
Ok, Cari, I'm really confused here.
So if people yawn to cool down their brains...
And they yawn more in the winter...
People overheat more in the winter?
This article (or the study) really needs some clarification here.
I'm sure people overheat more in the summer. But the study is claiming the reason people don't yawn as much in the summer is because yawning is suppose to cool down your brain so it makes no sense to yawn in the summer because you wouldn't be cooling it down, you'd just be adding to the heat by inhaling hotter air.
Personally I think it's a bunch of bull - I'm more willing to believe that people yawn more in the winter because it gets darker faster and people tend to yawn more when they perceive that their bedtime (whenever that maybe) is getting closer. This study is trying to find a biological reason (besides exhaustion) for what I think is more a psychological phenomena.
What I think this implies, CJ-2001013, is that during the summer as far as cooling down goes yawning is not as effective as it is in the winter because of warmer air temperatures. Even though it's winter it's not like we never have to cool down, not to mention when you get sick your body temperature rises. So, being winter and all I guess the body detects this and as a result we yawn to take advantage of the cooler air as a means to cool us down?
I see said the blind one. Evidently if you have certain degrees (no pun intended) after your name you can clearly state that the brain needs to be cooled down rather than there's less oxygen in the air when the trees and plant life are not flourishing.
Another waste of our tax dollars giving Princeton a big grant to do it! No wonder they have so much money. Just think of how much that cost is part of the National Debt! All these gov. grants should be cut off except for medical research. Look at the Millions they wasted on Global Warming so they could get enough false information to scare everyone and what happened to those two scientist.......got hidden in the system and no demand for return of that money was made either.
I'm quite interested in what you do for a living there, "Last". You seem short on endorphins. There have been many studies recently to examine whether people like you are genetically miserable or if you folks have some control over your chronic pessimism and blatant disregard for facts. Scientists are the polar opposite of con artists-- we just tell it like the evidence seems best to indicate-- it's politicians, bankers, and folks like you, Kevin, that twist facts to make the "other guys" look bad.
Oh for Heaven's sake ... lighten up ... it's not that big of a deal ... here's a link to the actual paper in Frontiers In Evolutionary Neuroscience: www.frontiersin.org/evolutionary_neuroscience/10.3389/fnevo.2011.00003/full
Funding was provided by the Center for Insect Science, University of Arizona (not Princeton), under funding provided under NIH grant 5 K12 GM000708. No specific funds are set aside for grant by NIH, it is anticipated that one or two new awards are made annually at an average cost of $500,000 in their first year.
"Candidates appointed under this program award must be U.S. citizens or non-citizen nationals, or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-551) or some other verification of legal status as a permanent resident. Non-citizen nationals, although not U.S. citizens, owe permanent allegiance to the U.S. They are generally born in lands which are not states but are under U.S. sovereignty, jurisdiction, or administration. Individuals on temporary or student visas are
not eligible."
It's not like the government funded a study on yawning - although indirectly I suppose they did - they were funding (in relatively small amounts maybe a couple times a year) research programs whose primary purposes were to help the researcher become better at researching. This little yawning study, was just a small little project drawn on the University of Arizona's award they received under the overall fund above (average award is $500,000, but it varies based on the application) - which is meant to help fund teaching methodologies for biomedical research. The University probably had money left over from their award after they were done with whatever they got the award for in the first place, and they are allowed to use that left over money to fund other health-related research projects. The fact that it is yawning and what the results are is really irrelevant to the overall form, function and format of the research. Lots of studies are done, all the time, and sometimes they have really interesting and useful results, this one just made news because it's about yawning.
In other words, these types of studies help postdoctoral researchers learn how to be better researchers before they head out in the world to do bigger and more meaningful research related things. Every once in a while, in the course of learning by doing these types of exercises, they stumble upon something interesting ... and now when your kid asks you why people yawn, you can answer smartly because you read this paper.
Researchers are a worthy investment - they keep us competitive in a competitive world.
Thank you, Gottabnuts, for clarifying. There are, and always will be, nay-sayers out there and unfortunately they are not the brightest bulbs in the box either. I would suspect there are many things that are uncovered in these so-called 'useless' studies that lead to further steps in curing or controlling things like Breast Cancer, Alzheimers, etc. Thank you once again.