Why does a person yawn a lot. Why do you often yawn: causes of daytime sleepiness

How to know if yawning is dangerous or not? Why does yawning appear and how to deal with it? Yawn like defensive reaction organism.

Yawning is an action respiratory system a person characterized by a long inhalation and a rapid exhalation. Yawning is familiar to everyone, most often it appears when a person does not get enough sleep. However, there are several other causes of yawning.

What does yawning mean? Reasons for yawning

For some time, scientists believed that yawning symbolizes a lack of oxygen in the body. This version well explained the long inhalation during which the intake a large number oxygen.

However, subsequent tests showed that if a person who yawns often is given enough oxygen, he will not stop yawning.

After yawning, blood circulation improves significantly, so the process of yawning itself cannot be attributed to negative consequences.
It is much more important to find out the reason why the body provokes uncontrolled yawning. Most likely, it is slowed down internal processes and yawning is an intuitive signal that makes the brain and heart work harder
That is why in the morning, immediately after sleep, yawns so often. The body is in calm state, and if we do not get enough sleep, then we try to compensate for the lack of rest with little activity. This causes the body to resist through yawning.

Reasons for constant yawning

Frequently repeated yawning can indicate both excessive nervousness and the presence of a serious illness. In the process of yawning, it cools the brain a little, due to oxygen saturation.

A similar phenomenon occurs involuntarily when a person is nervous, for example, among students before an exam or among athletes before a responsible start.

Frequent yawning along with other symptoms may indicate the presence of vegetative-vascular dystonia or cardiac arrhythmia. Anyway accurate diagnosis can be put only after careful examination in a clinical setting.

What does headache and yawning mean?

Frequent yawning may indicate the approach of a headache. Unlike the yawn of a person who has not had enough sleep or is simply bored, yawning before a migraine begins to repeat itself very often, literally every two or three minutes. Along with these symptoms, signs of hypotension may appear.

Yawning along with a headache clearly indicates medical disorder in the work of the body. Most often, attention should be paid to the heart vascular system. In rare cases frequent yawning appears with violations in the work of the endocrine system.

At home, you can easily check what type of yawning torments you in this moment. Once you start yawning frequently, get up and do some simple exercise.
Any exercise significantly increases the tone of the body, and if your yawning is not associated with an illness, then in a few minutes you will receive an excellent charge of vivacity and stop yawning.
If yawning does not go away after this, you should listen to additional symptoms that appear and seek help from the appropriate doctor.
Moreover, at the reception, you should talk not only about yawning, but about all the atypical reactions of your body that have been noticed. Remember that yawning in and of itself is not a sign of illness.

Chills and yawning

Chills most often occur during the onset of a respiratory or infectious disease
Together with yawning, chills are rare and can only indicate a complex appearance mixed type disease
If a person's heart is unstable, then infection, causing chills may be accompanied by yawning

In this case, the banal possibility of nervousness or fatigue should be excluded. If you get chills and tend to get nervous at the first sign of an illness you don't know, your body may go into yawning mode as a defensive response to your psychological state.
Yawning is believed to be massively repetitive in generality. If one of the people around begins to actively yawn, this stimulates other people to repeat this action.
At the same time, yawning can occur regardless of your current state. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that during the chill you were “infected” with yawns by the people around you.

Nausea and yawning

Yawning can be more than just a harmless phenomenon. Medicine knows cases when frequently repeated yawning was the cause serious illnesses. If along with yawning is felt headache and especially nausea, you should seek medical attention.

It is quite possible that this initial stage development of epilepsy, brain tumor, encephalitis, multiple sclerosis or paralysis
It is still quite far from the visible concrete manifestations of these diseases, but the first steps towards the study of one's health must be taken now.
It should be remembered that yawning can occur in many cases. bored man often yawns. After an irritable night, you can also yawn often
Quite common is a combination of violations of the rules of nutrition, when the day before a person eats junk food, especially spoiled, and in the morning next day nausea from bad food and yawning due to lack of proper rest at night

Yawning during exercise

At first glance, it seems that it is impossible to yawn during a workout, because there is an active process of performing any exercises or actions.

However, in reality, a person can quite easily yawn during a workout and the reason here is the surrounding climate and the exercises performed.

It has been established that yawning slightly cools the body, and if the air in the room is warm during exercise, then during work the body quickly heats up and a protective reaction is activated, which is aimed at restoring the temperature regime.
In this case, you do not need to be afraid and think about diseases, simple airing of the room will help you.
If you feel that yawning increases and interferes with your exercise, you should immediately stop exercising and go to rest.
Forcing yourself to work in conditions of total discomfort is not worth it. This will negatively affect the quality of the result and may result in a headache and increased fatigue of the whole organism.

Yawning in children, causes

In children, yawning occurs in exactly the same conditions as in adults. However, children are unable to resist feeling tired or wanting to sleep, so they often fall asleep immediately after yawning.

A yawn slightly activates the work of the brain and heart; during its execution, some muscles tense up. However, all this is not enough for children to overcome the mode of slow work of the body.

When the internal processes of the baby slow down, his body perceives this as a signal indicating that the baby is already sleeping.

Very quickly after this, the baby really falls asleep. Such yawning is not dangerous for the child. He just can't yawn all the time and not fall asleep.

The causes of yawning in children are the same:

lack of sleep
fatigue
yawning
body's defense reaction

Some special actions it is not necessary to take when the child yawns. It is important to follow general condition child, the correct intake of vitamins and an appropriate rest regimen.

Yawning in pregnancy

During pregnancy, a woman's body undergoes certain changes, so there are new manifestations of the body's behavior.

In a pregnant woman, the respiratory function changes, the work of the intestines changes. All this leads to the appearance frequent yawning and the desire to stretch.

Additionally, consideration should be given to mental condition women, especially if this is the first pregnancy. As a result, yawning appears throughout the day, which catches at the most unexpected moment
The process of yawning for pregnant women is quite characteristic and integral. During pregnancy, the gas structure of the blood changes, along with a change in respiratory function, this leads to the appearance of frequent yawning.

How to deal with yawning?

In order for the body to stop giving the urge to yawn, it is necessary to cheer yourself up, remove the state of drowsiness. For this, a change of scenery or type of activity is ideal.

If you are sitting at the computer and constantly yawning, just get up and walk down the hallway or around the room. If the environment allows, you can do a few squats.

If you start yawning at a meeting or a necessary conference where you cannot get up and activate your internal processes, get your brain active
A good option would be to solve complex arithmetic problems that require the full inclusion of the brain. Try mentally multiplying some two-digit non-round numbers. If the task is too easy - increase the complexity and sequence of mathematical actions
If yawning is caused bad dream best to lie down and sleep. If this does not work, switch your mind to the moment that you enjoy remembering. In the evening, be sure to try to go to bed earlier and get enough sleep.
If yawning comes from boredom, you need to find something to entertain yourself with. Here all advice is purely individual in nature, depending on the characteristics of the person and his interests.

Do not take yawning as the only true sign of illness
Carefully investigate the cause of yawning and eliminate it, not yawning itself
In the presence of additional symptoms, seek help from a doctor
Remember that yawning, in most cases, is a positive action that activates your body.

Review: Artem, 32 years old

Despite the fact that this material was written by me after careful collection of information, in the process of work, I began to actively yawn. What is interesting, reading about the reasons - I didn’t want to yawn, but when the work on writing the article began, yawning made itself felt. I had to get up several times and do a set of squats. A glass of pure natural water also helps.

Video: Why do people yawn?

Constant yawning and lack of air, which occurs regardless of the desire to sleep or stuffiness in the room, common symptom that occurs when vegetative dystonia. Some patients imagine that such symptoms may occur as a result of dangerous diseases, from which they begin to worry and get nervous, thereby aggravating their own condition.

A feeling of lack of oxygen is the most common symptom that covers a person with dystonia in case of being in a stressful situation or approaching a panic attack.

The mechanism of development of yawning in VVD looks like this:

initially there is a stressful situation;
the brain automatically changes the respiratory characteristics: the depth and rhythm of inhalations and exhalations;
a person begins to breathe shallowly, trying to make large quantity movements, and, after exhalation, immediately inhaling;
shallow breathing causes oxygen deficiency in the tissues;
the limbs of a person become cold;
the body goes into an economical mode of functioning;
the person begins to yawn frequently.

In such a situation, the lungs are overfilled with oxygen, which causes the disappearance of carbon dioxide from them. If the proportions of these elements in the lungs are violated, an asthma attack develops. Similar state causes a person to have a serious fear for his own life, which makes him breathe even more often, forming a vicious circle.

When the amount of carbon dioxide reaches critical levels, a person may lose consciousness. The body at this time is experiencing the following:

decrease in vascular tone;
the inability of the heart to qualitatively supply the human body with oxygen;
ischemic organ damage.

This situation causes an irresistible desire to yawn, which allows you to get enough oxygen. When a person yawns slowly, his respiratory functions return to proper functioning, oxygen begins to flow into the lungs again, and a balance occurs between it and carbon dioxide.

Respiratory dystonia

Almost every person with dystonia, sooner or later, feels a lack of oxygen in the body, causing a desire to speed up the process of inhalation and exhalation or to yawn as widely as possible. Some people do not attach any importance to this symptom, while others simply fixate on such respiratory manifestations.

Symptoms of dystonia occurring with respiratory pathologies are commonly called respiratory syndrome.

Despite the fears of the elders, such a syndrome is not capable of causing the death of a person. The maximum harm that it can do is a loss of consciousness, which can only reinforce the patient's negative attitude towards yawning.

Why do people with dystonia worry so much about breathing problems? Suspiciousness and increased anxiety make them assume that they have dangerous diseases, among which are asthma, oncological diseases lung or cardiovascular disease.

How more people worries about yawning and asthma attacks, the more often they occur and the harder they pass. In order to overcome the problem, one must learn that its roots do not lie in somatic pathologies but in emotional experiences.

Pathologies of the heart system and vascular network

The uprisings of the riders have some foundation, because the cause respiratory failure pathologies of the system of the heart and blood vessels, especially in terms of its pumping functions, may well become.

When a person takes breaths, a fleeting feeling of lack of oxygen may arise and immediately disappear, which is a sign of a pre-crisis state characteristic of arterial hypertension or cardiac arrhythmias. Such a pathology is always accompanied by a cough that occurs for no particular reason.

Lack of air, accompanied by incessant yawning, can be caused by diseases of the cardiac system. This pathology is characterized by constantly changing blood pressure, which can both rise and fall and a violation heart rate.

Signs of problems with the heart and blood vessels:

constant feeling of lack of oxygen;
increased reaction at night;
increased shortness of breath during active physical activity.

The main symptom of heart failure is the appearance of a feeling of lack of air during inhalation, when wheezing is heard in the lungs and sputum is abundantly formed. In order for such a state to pass, a person is forced to take a comfortable position of the body. Symptoms of heart failure are relieved by taking Nitroglycerin tablets.

Thromboembolism, manifested in the occurrence blood clots inside the vessels located in the pulmonary arterial trunk, it can act as a provocateur of frequent yawning and a feeling of lack of air. Such symptoms can act as initial signs of the development of this dangerous disease.

A similar pathology lies in the fact that a blood clot can be displaced from its location by the blood flow and float along the vessel until it enters its narrow part and completely blocks the lumen. This situation leads to the development of pulmonary infarction.

The causes of the problem have a number of additional symptoms:

acute respiratory failure develops;
there is a strong cough;
sputum is separated, which has blood in its composition;
the skin acquires a bluish tint.

The development of thromboembolism is quite fast, affecting the entire body:

the vascular tone of each organ decreases, including the lungs, heart and brain;
due to lack of oxygen supply, there are disturbances in the work of the cardiovascular system;
the volume of blood necessary for their full work does not enter the lungs;
in the reverse movement, blood enters the lungs from the heart, with a minimum oxygen content, preventing it from functioning properly.

This situation leads to an acceleration of the heart rate, with the help of which the heart seeks to increase performance. blood pressure. The result of these processes is the incessant yawning. Thus, vegetative department nervous system trying to adjust respiratory processes to introduce the right amount of oxygen into the body and correct its deficiency. All this work is aimed at achieving one goal: preventing the development of ischemia in the tissues of the body.

VSD

Yawning with VVD occurs as a reaction of the body to stressful situations, fright or fatigue, when he tries to normalize the respiratory processes and prevent oxygen starvation in the tissues of the body. In order for the muscles to receive as much as possible nutrients, a person begins to actively inhale air, due to which the lungs are oversaturated with oxygen, receiving much more than necessary.

Vascular dystonia, causing shortness of breath and lack of air, provokes the appearance discomfort a person who frightens him and greatly exacerbates it, and so, in general, negative symptoms.

Yawning, which occurs very often, the feeling that there is not enough air - all this causes the development of such manifestations from the body as:

sleep disturbance;
increased anxiety;
development of fatigue;
trembling of the limbs;
increased sweat separation;
occurrence of panic attacks.

Suffocation during VVD, during which a person seeks to inhale as much oxygen as possible, leads to the fact that the level carbon dioxide decreases in the body. For this reason vascular walls come into hypertonicity, which entails, in turn, muscle tension and narrowing of blood vessels penetrating the brain. These signs are characteristic of the condition of a person with vegetovascular dystonia.

Yawning and choking can become an attack of VVD if the person is not distracted, does not pull himself together and does not relax.

Such processes should be stopped in a timely manner in order to prevent the development of hyperventilation syndrome, which threatens to cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract, heart, blood vessels and lungs.

Respiratory diseases

Respiratory function, which is impaired in some people, can be not only a sign of VVD, but also the cause of other somatic pathologies:

bronchial asthma;
neoplasms of a malignant or benign nature, localized in the lungs;
bronchiectasis;
infectious lesions of the respiratory system;
pulmonary edema.

In addition to problems with respiratory organs feeling of lack of oxygen and constant yawning, may be signs of rheumatism, overweight body and a sedentary lifestyle.

Should yawning be treated?

Many riders who suffer from incessant yawning are left with a feeling of fear that these manifestations are a sign deadly disease and they need urgent medical attention.

In fact, in most cases, there are no reasons to contact a specialist (if other pathologies are excluded). The only thing the doctor can recommend is to change your own lifestyle, changing it to a physically active one and adjusting sleep and work patterns. All this will help to teach the body to breathe properly.

The basis of the treatment of such a condition is the fight against stress and depression often present in people with VSD. Only calm person, not worried about trifles, adequately assessing own health, can get rid of frequent yawning and live a fulfilling life.

It is generally accepted that yawning is associated with the process of sleep - a person yawns before going to bed and after waking up. But it is not so. Yawning attacks can overtake in stuffy room, during monotonous work, from overwork, or simply "for the company" with someone. What is a yawn? Why does it arise? Does it have any benefit, or is it a sign of illness? You will learn the answers to these questions from the article.

Yawning refers to the physiological processes of a person and is necessary for normal life. Its mechanism is simple and familiar to everyone:

deep involuntary breath;
short breath.

Accompanied it widely open mouth and sometimes sound. Keyword"involuntary" or "reflex" means that the process of yawning is difficult to control on the part of a person. The reasons for this are the involvement in the mechanism of yawning of all body systems:

nervous;
respiratory;
circulatory;
skeletal;
muscular;
vascular.

As a result - the channels of the nasopharynx, the alveoli of the lungs, eustachian tubes(lead to inner ear) open, the lungs are ventilated. Nutrition and blood supply to the brain improves.

Based on this, we can judge the benefits of yawning:

blood supply to the brain improves;
performance is restored;
metabolic processes are accelerated;
eye strain is relieved;
lungs are deeply ventilated;
the muscles of the back, arms and legs receive an additional load if a person stretches while yawning;
yawning helps with ear congestion during airplane flights.

Reasons for yawning

Why does a person want to yawn? Many researchers have studied this process. Today, the following reasons can be distinguished:

The need to "cool" the brain

An American professor conducted experiments on budgerigars. It turned out that in a hot room they yawned several times more often than in a cool one. The same fact was confirmed by another study - the subjects put warm and cold compresses on their heads. Then they offered to watch videos of people and animals yawning. Participants in the experiment with cold compresses on their heads yawned 2 times less often. Breathing through the nose has a cooling effect on the brain.

Fatigue, tiredness of the body

During periods of overwork, all body systems begin to work more slowly. As a result, the blood accumulates harmful products metabolism. Yawning helps to cheer up, starting active blood flow, which delivers oxygen to organs and tissues.

Reaction to nervous tension

Yawning attacks occur in students at the time of the exam, in artists before performances, in athletes before important competitions. This is a protective reaction of the body, which does not allow you to fall into a stupor.

The need to be alert

Yawning in the late evening or early morning helps the brain to be saturated with oxygen and quickly begin to work actively. This is especially important in those moments when you want to sleep.

Information overload

Prolonged monotonous work is accompanied by yawning. the brain is tired. You need to take a break or change activities.

oxygen starvation

A long stay in a stuffy room will inevitably cause yawning. The brain is active only when clean, cool air enters.

"Contagious" yawning

Many researchers have tried to figure out why this reflex is contagious. Why, when a person looks at someone yawning, he also wants to yawn. Here are some theories:

Primitive. People in ancient times lived in tribes. The signal for going to bed was yawning - they showed each other in this way that it was time to sleep. A yawn could also be a signal of danger.
Empathic. An experiment on autistic children showed that the cause of "collective" yawning is the ability of a person to experience, to sympathize with another person. Children with autism are not capable of this. They only yawn when their bodies need it. The same results were shown by the experiment, when a group of subjects were given to watch videos of yawning people. From this we can conclude about the character of a person - tough, narcissistic people will never yawn "for the company."

The second theory has scientific rationale. There are mirror neurons in the cerebral cortex. They come into action if a person observes the movements of another person. They also determine the ability to imitate (which is important when studying foreign languages, for example), as well as the ability to empathize.

A very remarkable fact is that dogs always yawn after the owner. Scientists explain this by the long-standing cooperation of the dog and man.

Yawning as a symptom of illness

If yawning occurs frequently and without visible reasons, this may indicate disorders in the body:

Arises oxygen starvation brain, which can be caused by excess mucus in the organs.
The hormonal background is broken.
Multiple sclerosis.
As a harbinger of an epileptic seizure.
Migraine attack.
Failures in the work of the cardiovascular system.

ABOUT possible problems only obsessive yawning in conjunction with other atypical reactions of the body signals. One can easily check what type of yawn is being pursued. To do this, you need to get up at the moments of yawning and start doing physical exercise. The body receives a charge of vivacity. If yawning disappears, then it is physiological. If not, you need to go to the doctor and tell about all the doubtful symptoms.

How to overcome yawning

The main cause of yawning is fatigue and overwork of the body. That's why in an efficient way overcome the reflex physical activity. If a person has been doing monotonous work for a long time, he needs to get up and walk, or do some exercises.

In the case when it is impossible to do exercises (exam, meeting), you need to make the brain work actively. For this, the solution of arithmetic problems is suitable - multiply two-digit numbers in your mind.

If yawning is caused by fatigue, you need to sleep. If you're bored, find something interesting to do.

Yawning: interesting facts

It is known that not only people, but also animals yawn. Here are a few features of yawning in representatives of the animal world:

Large predators yawn before hunting. So they prepare for maneuvers, enriching the blood with oxygen.
Monkeys add grins to yawning. This serves as a warning signal to a rival or predator.
Rats yawn when they are hungry.
Hippo while yawning frees the body from accumulated gases. And a lot of them are produced, because this beast has 16 sections in the stomach.
Yawning is also characteristic of birds and mammals. The only animal that does not yawn is the giraffe.
Other than humans, only chimpanzees can "collectively" yawn.

Other interesting features reflex.

The appearance of moles, redness of the eyes, frequent yawning - these and other "little things" can cause serious diseases. Therefore, noticing that the body is a little "jumping", do not expect that everything will go away by itself. After all, in such a clear way, your body tells you about the danger. And you, in turn, must inform the doctor about this!

Any ailment in early stage treatment is easier and cheaper. That's why it's so important to know dangerous symptoms in order to take adequate measures to eliminate them in a timely manner.

Frequent yawning during the day

You sleep enough and get enough sleep, but you suddenly pesters frequent yawning? Scientists have found that this physiological process helps to reduce nervousness and mobilize the body.

It is for this reason for yawning often overcomes skydivers before jumps, athletes before the start, musicians before a concert ... Perhaps you have an exam, public speaking or some serious challenge different kind? involuntary yawning increases the readiness of the body to act in critical situations.

According to other theories, yawning is difficult process regulation of brain temperature. Yawning brings in blood and cooler air, which improves brain function. It usually accompanies fatigue, drowsiness, boredom, a depressed, despondent state. If the mood is cheerful, joyful, upbeat, you don’t want to yawn.

To stop frequent yawning, as a rule, it is enough to change the position, straighten up and square your shoulders, take a few deep breaths and sharp exhalations, if possible, walk around or do some simple physical exercises.

If you yawn frequently, you should see a doctor. When?

unstoppable constant yawn may be a symptom of some disease states requiring medical care. Frequent yawning, combined with excessive weakness and drowsiness, may indicate hormonal changes, chronic fatigue syndrome or burnout syndrome.

Yawning attacks are observed with migraine, cerebrovascular accident, vegetative-vascular dystonia, multiple sclerosis, in a pre-syncope state. For clarification causes of excessive yawning it is necessary to consult a doctor.

Periodically disturbed by interruptions in the work of the heart

Such violations do not always indicate the presence of a serious problem. Very often, people who feel arrhythmia do not suffer from severe heart disease.

Heart rhythm problems can be caused by lack of sleep, certain medications, stress response, or physical activity, smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages . However, there are those in which dangerous symptoms appear, sometimes even life-threatening.

When to See a Doctor for Heart Failure

If heart rhythm disturbances occur frequently or are accompanied by chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, blackouts, it is necessary to full examination to clarify the cause arrhythmias. Arrhythmia may be a symptom of heart failure, thyroid disease, various poisonings.

The main method for diagnosing cardiac arrhythmias is the electrocardiogram (ECG), exercise ECG and daily monitoring ECG.

Eyes often redden

Hemorrhages can be provoked by increased physical and visual stress, blood pressure drops, visiting saunas and baths, hypovitaminosis, food poisoning. Often blood vessels the eyes are greatly expanded and even burst in those who wear lenses.

When to See a Doctor for Red Eyes

If the blood vessels in the eyes often dilate and burst, this may indicate a disorder.

Although a lot of research has been devoted to studying the causes of yawning, scientists still cannot agree on what its main purpose is. For a long time it was believed that yawning occurs as a result of a low oxygen content in the blood: with the help of deep breath the body takes a breath of oxygen. However, scientists eventually refuted this theory: it turned out that if you give a yawning person more oxygen or ventilate a stuffy room, he will not stop yawning.

Reason for yawning. Version 2: brain cooling

According to another theory, a person yawns to cool the brain. Experiments conducted by American scientists showed that subjects who were applied to the forehead cold compress, yawned less when watching videos of yawning people than subjects with warm compress or without it (about the contagiousness of yawning - a little lower). Those participants in the experiment who were asked to breathe only through their nose also yawned less often: with such breathing, cooler blood enters the brain than with mouth breathing.

Reason for yawning. Version 3: warm up

Who else?

Not only people yawn, but also other mammals, birds and even fish. For example, baboons yawn to show threat, while exposing their fangs. In addition, male baboons always yawn at the sound of thunder (scientists have not yet figured out why). Male fighting fish also yawn to demonstrate threat - they yawn when they see another fish or look in the mirror and are often accompanied by an aggressive attack. Other fish can also yawn, usually when the water is too hot or there is a lack of oxygen. Emperor and Adélie penguins yawn during their courtship ritual. And snakes yawn to straighten their jaws and straighten their trachea after swallowing large prey.

Another purpose of yawning is to stretch and relax tired or tight muscles. First of all, these are the muscles of the pharynx and tongue, but also the muscles of the whole body: that is why a person often stretches simultaneously with yawning. Such a warm-up for the muscles, combined with a cooling of the brain, helps to invigorate the body and bring it into a state of readiness for action. Therefore, yawning often occurs when people are nervous before some important event: students yawn before exams, skydivers before a jump, and artists before a performance. For the same reason, people yawn when they are sleepy or bored: yawning helps to invigorate a sleepy brain and numb muscles.

Reason for yawning. Version 4: Ear Help

It is also useful to yawn while flying on an airplane. This helps alleviate the sensation of stuffy ears that occurs during takeoff or landing due to the pressure difference on either side of the eardrum. Since the pharynx is connected to the middle ear cavity by special channels, yawning helps equalize the pressure in the ears.

Reason for yawning. Version 5: mirror neurons

four legged friends

Yawning can be transmitted not only from person to person, but also from person to dog. So, scientists from Sweden and the UK have shown that dogs yawn at the sight of yawning people, and the tendency to such mirror behavior depends on the age of the dog: animals under seven months old are resistant to infection by yawning. At the same time, dogs are not deceived - if a person does not yawn for real, but simply opens his mouth, depicting a yawn, the dog will not yawn in response. Scientists have also shown that dogs become more relaxed and sleepy when they see a yawning person - that is, they copy not only human behavior, but also physiological state underlying it.

Yawning is highly contagious. People begin to yawn not only when they see others yawning, but also when watching videos or photos of people yawning. Moreover, often it is enough for a person to read or think about yawning in order to start yawning himself. However, not everyone has the ability to mirror yawn: studies of children with autism have shown that, unlike healthy children, they do not become infected with yawning when watching videos of other people yawning. Also, children under the age of five, who are not yet able to empathize with others, are not prone to mirror yawning. What explains the relationship between susceptibility to infection by yawning and the capacity for empathy?

The contagiousness of yawning is based on the so-called mirror neurons. These neurons, located in the cerebral cortex of humans, other primates, and some birds, have a kind of empathy: they fire when a person observes the actions that someone else is doing. Mirror neurons determine the ability to imitate (for example, when learning new languages) and empathy: thanks to them, we do not just notice emotional condition another person, but actually experiencing it ourselves. Mirror yawning is one example of such imitative behavior. According to scientists, imitative yawning arose in the evolution of primates to coordinate actions social groups. When one of the group members yawned at the sight of danger, his state was transmitted to everyone else, and the group came into a state of readiness for action.

Reason for yawning. Version 6: a sign of closeness

In 2011, Italian scientists showed that the contagiousness of yawning serves as a measure of people's emotional closeness. In experiments, mirror yawning most often occurred in close relatives and friends of the yawner. Distant acquaintances were less likely to become infected by yawning, and very rarely did mirror behavior occur in people unfamiliar with the yawning person. At the same time, gender and nationality did not affect the tendency to yawn infection.

Reason for yawning. Version 7: a symptom of the disease

Prolonged frequent yawning may be a sign various diseases- for example, violations of thermoregulation of the body, problems with sleep, high blood pressure, thrombosis of the arteries or damage to the brain stem, where the respiratory center is located. In addition, too frequent yawning can be caused by increased anxiety or depression - while in the blood there is an increased level of cortisol, the stress hormone. Therefore, if you are overcome by constant yawning, you should consult a doctor - check your heart, blood vessels and pressure. And for starters, you can try to get a good night's sleep and stop being nervous.