Despite the fact that yawning is one of the functions that our body performs involuntarily and that we enjoy a lot, even since we are in the womb.
Now, new research from the state universities of New York (SUNY) and of Viennadirected by the physiologist Andrew Gallup, He maintains that yawning not only cools the brain, but also improves its efficiency and response speed.
According to the conclusions of this study, published in the journal Physiology and Behavior, «Yawning helps maintain balanced brain temperature and optimal homeostasis,» that is, it helps to keep it stable to ensure its correct operation.
Scientists have reached these conclusions after comparing the number of yawns that spread among pedestrians in Austria Y Arizona seeing pictures of people yawning.
Austrians yawn more in summer
The results showed that people in Vienna yawned more in the summer than in the winter, and in Arizona the opposite was true: there were more yawns in the winter. The person in charge, Jorg Massen, from the University of Vienna, explains that this does not depend on the season of the year, but that this response occurs in a certain range of temperatures. In other words, both in a torrid summer in Arizona and in a frigid winter in Vienna, the frequency of infected yawns decreases.
According to the scientist, the cooling exerted by yawning “it is not functional when the ambient temperature is as warm as the body temperature, and it may not be necessary or even have harmful consequences when it is freezing outside”.
cooling mechanism
This cooling mechanism depends on three phenomena, as Jorg Massen explains: Yawning increases blood flow to the brain, draws a considerable amount of outside air into the mouth, and ventilates the sinuses.
Although yawning plays a role, sleep cycles, brain activity and stress also influence brain temperature regulation.
yawning in animals
«Almost all groups of vertebrates yawn, including birds and fish,» according to Javier de Miguel Águeda, an expert biologist in animal behavior at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), although contagious yawning only occurs among some groups of mammals.
«In certain groups of primates, such as baboons and macaques, yawning is used as a threat signal,» because they expose their fangs. Also in hippos and certain fish, they can be used as threat signals, explains the biologist.
The benefits of yawning:
1. Lower your body temperature. A study led by Andrew Gallup at Princeton University ensures that when you yawn, the walls of the maxillary sinus (cheekbones) expand and contract, which pump air to cool your brain, which is why we yawn so much in hot weather.
The Gallup study published in the journal Medical Hypotheses points out that what happens to your body when you yawn is that your body temperature drops for a short period of time.
2. Sign of emotional bond and empathy. Another study from the Natural History Museum in Pisa, Italy, indicates that yawning occurs out of empathy. With those people with whom we have strong emotional ties we can unleash a chain of yawns, although this can even arise when we are reading about it, watching a video or a photograph with people yawning.
3. Yawning relaxes us. Some experts think that yawning acts as a natural relaxation mechanism. It is common to yawn after a stressful situation and is the prelude to sleep. Yawning is not always linked to boredom or inattention.
4. It helps you oxygenate. When we are tired or extremely relaxed, we breathe less intensely, which causes a lower exchange of oxygen or an excess of carbon dioxide in our body, yawning helps us to take a deep breath and compensate for the lack of oxygen.
5. Increase your blood pressure. After yawning, blood pressure and heart rate increase by more than 25%.
6. It is an intense expenditure of energy. Many parts of your body come into action when you yawn and your muscles react intensely, first of all, your mouth opens and your jaw drops and allows a huge amount of air to enter your lungs, your abdominal muscles flex, and the diaphragm is pushed down.
7. Yawning due to health problems. We know that yawning is natural, but if you yawn excessively, to the point of causing discomfort and especially when you have rested enough, your body could be sending you some signals about your health, such as: lack of red blood cells or poor lung capacity .
With information from Report21