Do you know these surprising meanings of yawning?

Yawning has a physiological, social, emotional and even sexual meaning. It reduces tension, increases acuity and is even related to eroticism!

Yawning is universal, timeless and one of the gestures most everyday there is. Physiological, but also emotional and social components are involved in it.

Until very recently It was given a simple meaning: it indicated fatigue, appetite or boredom.. However, research has shown that this is not entirely accurate.

For its part, our culture has given a more or less negative meaning to yawning in social situations. If you are talking to someone and that person starts yawning, you may think that your company is boring. Well, it has been discovered that this is not the case.

“My whim is smoke, women and yawns”

-Gonzalo Escudero-

On the other hand, you may have noticed that animals also yawn. For example, dogs do it when they are hungry, but also when you pamper them. The same happens with cats and other species. What meaning then do yawns contain?

Yawning from a physiological point of view

The first explanation that science gave to the yawn was of a physiological nature. It was established that it was a mechanism to regulate temperature. The brain, like the hard drive of a computer, heats up on various occasions. It reaches the point of being able to burn a third of the calories we consume.

However, in order to continue functioning, the brain needs to cool down. Yawning is an ideal mechanism for this. Yawning increases blood flow . It’s like we bring a breath of fresh air to the brain.

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Thus, from a physical point of view, yawning is the coolant of the brain. In this way, it helps to make it more active and efficient. In fact, in moments of dispersion or lack of concentration, it is recommended to yawn repeatedly to activate the mind.

As curious facts, it should be noted that the older you are, the less you yawn and that fetuses also yawn in the womb.

A study from Princeton University corroborates this explanation. According to their research, yawning moves the membranes that protect the sinuses. This is due to the movement of the jaw. With this movement there is an entry of extra air to the brain.

For its part, When we feel very tired or sleepy, our body tends to cause excessive yawning.. In this case, it is also a way to stay active.

A fascinating aspect of yawning is that it is contagious. Yes, contagious. The usual thing is that when we see a person yawn, we imitate them. This is an automatic mechanism, which may even have been activated when you looked at one of the images in this article.

Dr. Catriona Morrison of the University of Leeds, England, found that whoever yawns feels identified with the environment that surrounds him. Therefore, it is not a sign of boredom, but of empathy. The yawner is establishing bonds with those around him at the moment of yawning. The same goes for those who become infected with it.

It should be noted that animals do not transmit the desire to yawn to each other. That is an exclusively human characteristic.. It was also proven that those with autism are not influenced by seeing someone else yawning either.

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Emotional and sexual yawning

Studies have been developed that show that There is a relationship between yawning and stress situationsanxiety or threat.

For example, lemurs were observed to yawn very frequently. When their behavior was analyzed in detail, it was found that they did this particularly after having eluded a predator. Later it was verified that they also did so when they detected a threat.

When analyzing this behavior, several conclusions were drawn. The first was that Yawning helps reduce emotions associated with stress. By yawning, lemurs calm themselves. Likewise, it was verified that yawning when faced with danger or threat contributes to sharpening the senses and putting the brain on alert.

The conclusions derived from the study of lemurs also apply to humans.. It has been detected that athletes, for example, tend to yawn a lot just before an important competition.

The same behavior has also been observed in soldiers and military personnel, before and after risky missions. Therefore, Yawning is also a protection and defense mechanism.

Although it may seem difficult to believe, yawning also has a meaning within sexuality.. You’re probably thinking that yawning isn’t exactly a sexy behavior.

However, the Vrije University of Holland is currently carrying out a study in this regard. It has been discovered that people yawn a lot when they are planning to have sex. There are no conclusions yet, but the link is verified.