» What does yawning mean?

Why does a person yawn and what does it mean when you yawn?

According to Dutch psychologist Walter Seuntjens, who spent eighteen years studying data from a variety of sciences, yawning has a mainly erotic meaning. Consciously or not, it represents an invitation to sex. The sensations that accompany yawning are often even described as a “mini-orgasm.”

To support his thesis, the scientist mentions that yawning in macaques is a sign of sexual alpha dominance, and therefore superiority (which, it turns out, is the reason your bosses are annoyed when you yawn in meetings). So don't yawn in the office. Your colleagues will have every reason to view you with suspicion.

Countgents believes that there is still no satisfactory explanation for yawning. He says the traditional explanation for hypoxia - that yawning is the body's way to get more oxygen - has yet to be proven. In fact, the phenomenon of yawning is still a mystery. “In fact, we really have no idea what causes yawning and what purposes yawning serves, what mechanisms are responsible for it, or even what basic anatomical components are involved. In an era when the human genome has already been deciphered and space travel is becoming commonplace, this verdict may sound like an insult,” he writes.

The psychologist also claims that when taking certain antidepressants, yawning can cause spontaneous orgasms. He adds: “When discussing pathology, I found that yawning and spontaneous ejaculation were mentioned together.” He presented the results of his research in the work On Yawning or the Hidden sexuality of the Human Yawn, published by the University of Amsterdam in 2004.

Why do you want to yawn?

We yawn when we are tired or when our hungry stomach screams. However, there are also yawns that express aggression or boredom.

If you exclude savory yawning, when your eyes simply get stuck together, then the repeated yawning of your interlocutor does not necessarily indicate that he needs rest.

Inappropriate yawning may be a subconscious reaction to suppressed aggression. He yawns not because he is bored, but because his counterpart (i.e. you) is boring or annoying him. Therefore, if your interlocutor yawns continuously, try to end the conversation as quickly as possible. He should apologize for not getting enough sleep if your conversation puts him to sleep or if your arguments get on his nerves.

Why do you often yawn while covering your mouth with your hand?

Is it really just a matter of politeness, elegance or hygiene that makes people cover their mouths when they yawn? The real reason is different: there was a time when they believed that the soul could slip out along with the exhalation if the mouth opened too wide. Therefore, it was necessary to cover the mouth, which was opening from fatigue, with one’s hand - in order to prevent the premature departure of the soul. This same hand simultaneously served as an obstacle that prevented evil spirits from taking advantage of the opportunity to penetrate the body.

What does yawning mean?

Your counterpart yawns with his mouth closed.

Such yawning is most often a reflex. Quite often it betrays the active skepticism of the yawner. Your interlocutor doubts your integrity in general and yours in particular.

Your interlocutor yawns, mouth wide open.

Yawning without covering your mouth is a sign of contempt or bad upbringing. It’s better to know in advance how to approach this, especially if we're talking about About work. “This is just a brilliant idea,” says someone, stifling a yawn. Even a compliment is unable to hide the disdain evident in the gesture; Absolutely nothing changes if the conversation takes place over the phone.

Why does a person yawn often?

Frequent yawning is a sign of boredom combined with active rejection.

If your interlocutor yawns several times, covering his mouth with the back of his hand, it means that your counterpart is not at all interested in everything you say. Lower the curtain! This is a signal of rejection.

Your interlocutor yawns continuously, covering his mouth with his fingertips and tapping his lips with them.

It was very likely that the fingers called the mouth to order, inviting it to remain silent instead of entering into unnecessary debate.

Your interlocutor yawns, covering his mouth with a half-closed fist.

The gesture being performed is a symbol of obvious rejection! A closed hand is always a sign of aggression.

Prepared from: Messinger J. C. Ces gestes qui vous trahissent - Paris: France, 2013

Yawning is an unconditioned reflex, manifested in the form of a special respiratory act that occurs involuntarily. It all starts with a long deep breath, during which all possible obstacles to the penetration of air are eliminated, namely, the mouth and glottis open wide. Immediately after inhalation there is a quick exhalation, accompanied by a characteristic sound.

It should be noted that not only people yawn, but also almost all living inhabitants of our planet - mammals, birds, amphibians and even fish. We ourselves begin to yawn in the womb.

The exact causes of yawning have not yet been fully established; at the same time, there are several hypotheses regarding the occurrence of this reflex.

Fatigue and lack of sleep

Very often people begin to yawn when they are tired and have not had enough sleep. At such moments, inhibition processes begin to predominate in the brain, as a result of which activity decreases. nerve cells. The processes of inhibition of brain neurons affect many functions human body, including breathing, which becomes less deep and rare. As a result, oxidized metabolic products begin to accumulate in the blood. They irritate specific receptors and provoke yawning.

This version gives yawning a certain physiological meaning. During yawning, the blood is enriched with oxygen and accumulated carbon dioxide is eliminated. In addition, blood flow in the vessels of the brain increases. This happens because when yawning, the muscles of the face, neck and oral cavity. Together with blood, more blood begins to flow into the brain nutrients and oxygen, and metabolic products, on the contrary, are intensively excreted. As a result, brain activity stops for some time.

Most likely, nature has provided such a mechanism in order to postpone rest for some time if for some reason it cannot take place. However, you should understand that this cannot continue for long, and if you have already begun to yawn, then perhaps it is time to rest and recuperate.

Brain overheating

This version explains situations when yawning appears in a completely alert person, and its appearance cannot be explained by fatigue or lack of sleep. This can happen due to anxiety, psychological stress, or being in a hot and stuffy room.

In this case, according to scientists, the cause of yawning is overheating of the brain, which requires maintaining constant temperature, and even a slight increase in it leads to disruption of its activity. Yawning is necessary to regulate brain temperature. During the initial deep breath, a fair amount of cold air enters the body. In the lungs, this air heats up, cooling the blood, and is quickly expelled. Cooled blood enters the vessels of the brain and takes away excess heat. If the problem persists, yawning may recur.

The benefits of yawning

According to doctors, yawning is beneficial: it relaxes the muscles and expands respiratory tract. Thanks to yawning, fatigue is relieved, nervous tension, the work of the brain is activated. This normalizes arterial pressure, mood improves, which reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Yawning as a symptom

You should be wary if yawning does not stop and repeats without any notice. apparent reason. Uncontrollable yawning may indicate the presence of a number of pathological conditions that require specialist intervention.

If repeated yawning is accompanied by drowsiness, malaise, weakness, then this may indicate diseases of the nervous and endocrine systems, syndrome emotional burnout and chronic fatigue.

Attacks of uncontrollable yawning can occur when vegetative-vascular dystonia, violations cerebral circulation, for migraines, multiple sclerosis. Such yawning should not go unnoticed and you should consult a doctor as soon as possible.

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Many studies have been devoted to the phenomenon of yawning, but scientists still cannot agree on the main purpose of this phenomenon. Let's try to understand the most common hypotheses, some of which are quite original.

Lack of oxygen
For quite a long time it was believed that with the help of yawning, the body takes a breath of air and replenishes the lack of oxygen in the blood. As a result, this theory was refuted, since a person who was given more oxygen or placed in a newly ventilated room did not stop yawning. This means that it is not a matter of oxygen and its quantity.

Brain cooling
According to another theory, a person supposedly yawns to cool the brain. Experiments conducted by American scientists demonstrated that those subjects who had cold compresses applied to their foreheads yawned less often when watching videos of people yawning than subjects without compresses or with warm compresses on their foreheads. If the subjects were asked to breathe only through their nose, they also yawned less often, because in this case, when breathing, the brain receives cooler blood than when breathing through the mouth.

Warm-up
Presumably, another purpose of yawning may be the need for the body to stretch and relax tired and tight muscles. First of all, this applies to the muscles of the pharynx and tongue, but also to the muscles of the whole body: this is why a person often stretches when yawning. Perhaps this kind of warm-up of the muscles while cooling the brain will help invigorate the body and come to a state of readiness.

That is why frequent yawning, the reasons for which have not yet been determined, can “attack” a person before some important event: an artist can yawn before a performance, a student before exams, a parachutist before a jump. When a person is bored or wants to sleep, he also yawns, because the process of yawning will help invigorate numb muscles and a sleepy brain.

Yawning helps your ears
While flying on an airplane, it is very useful to yawn: it will help get rid of congestion in the ears, which occurs when there is a difference in pressure outside and inside the head. eardrum. Since the middle ear cavity communicates with the pharynx through special channels, yawning, by opening these channels, helps equalize the pressure in the ears.

Mirror neurons
Yawning is incredibly contagious. A person begins to yawn not only at the sight of people yawning real life people, but even when viewing photos and videos of people yawning. Often you only need to think or read about yawning to start yawning uncontrollably yourself. However, not everyone has the ability to perform a mirror yawn. Children under five years of age are resistant to mirror yawning because they do not yet have the ability to empathize with other people, and children with autism do not become infected with yawning, either when they actually see it or when watching a video of them yawning. How to explain this phenomenon?

The contagiousness of yawning is created by the so-called mirror neurons, which are located in the cerebral cortex, not only in humans, but also in primates and some birds. Mirror neurons have empathy, firing when a person observes someone else doing something. It is mirror neurons that determine the ability to imitate - it is clearly visible, for example, when studying foreign language and with empathy: it’s as if we not only notice the state of another person, but also actually experience it ourselves. One of the brightest examples imitative behavior - mirror yawning.

Animals yawn too
Scientists believe that imitative yawning appeared in primates when coordinating the actions of group members: if one of the primates yawned in danger, his state was transmitted to the rest, and the group quickly came to a state of readiness for action.

Yawning is not only transmitted from person to person, but also from person to dogs. It has been noticed that the dog begins to yawn at the sight of its owner and other people yawning. At the same time, it is impossible to deceive the dog: if you simply open your mouth, imitating a yawn, it will not yawn in response. Next to a yawning person, the dog becomes relaxed and sleepy, that is, it copies not only the owner’s behavior, but also his physiological state.

Yawning as a sign of intimacy
Italian scientists discovered in 2011 that the contagiousness of yawning demonstrates a measure of emotional closeness between people, since it most often occurs among friends and close relatives of the yawner. Distant acquaintances and strangers are much less likely to become infected with yawning.

Yawning as a symptom of illness
Frequent, prolonged yawning can be a sign of various diseases - from body thermoregulation, high blood pressure, arterial thrombosis and brain stem damage to sleep problems. Frequent yawning also occurs with depression and anxiety (the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood increases).

If you are suddenly “attacked” by incessant yawning, you should consult a doctor and check your blood pressure, heart and blood vessels. But first, it won’t hurt to stop being nervous and get a good night’s sleep - suddenly the yawning will disappear by itself.

Yawning is considered an involuntary response of the human body to certain factors. Normally, a person is able to yawn several times a day, but there are times when this process occurs too often.

This is due to the presence of certain diseases that provoke constant yawning throughout the day. It is worth understanding in more detail: when such a phenomenon is harmless, and when it is worth visiting a doctor.

Yawning often helps the body recover. After a long rest, or vice versa, hard work, a person involuntarily does deep breath, thereby providing the cells with oxygen.

During this, metabolism is activated and nutrition is also increased. internal organs and fabrics.

Yawning is considered an important physiological process, so the desire to yawn after a long day of work or after sleep does not bode ill.

It is worth considering the main reasons why you constantly want to yawn:

1. Physiology. This includes lack of sleep, fatigue, long trips, changes in waking hours.

   In addition, some medical supplies can give such a reaction to the body. If a person yawns, he just wants to sleep.

2. Diseases. In first place is vegetative-vascular dystonia, which is caused by a lack of oxygen.

   Symptoms include phobias, anxiety and cough. In addition, from diseases yawning highlight hypothyroidism, epilepsy, bronchitis.

3. Psychology. Feeling severe anxiety, stress or emotional overstrain, a person involuntarily begins to yawn.

   This case is explained by the fact that the lungs need ventilation and additional air flow. This type also includes mirror desires to yawn.

   For example, when a person sees another person begin to open his mouth to yawn, he reflects this action on a subconscious level. As a result, people yawn, repeating one after another.

It is worth noting that scientists have conducted studies that have proven that the contagiousness of yawning is explained by the manifestation of closeness to the interlocutor.

Seeing a relative yawn is much more likely to yawn than if a stranger did it.

Why do some people yawn during prayer?

There are cases of yawning that occur only at a certain moment, for example while reading a prayer.

When visiting a temple, you can notice how a person tries to yawn during the service. Why this happens is worth finding out in more detail.

Note! In mystical statements there are signs that if yawning occurs during prayer, it means that the person is possessed by demons.

Yawning during worship occurs due to relaxation of the body. Reading a prayer and listening carefully to singing, a person becomes relaxed, but this does not mean that he has been struck by a demon.

Perhaps the worship space is too stuffy and needs to be ventilated a little.

Let's look at the main reasons for yawning during prayer at home.

Don't worry about people yawning during prayer - it's conditioned physiological processes organism that responds.

How to deal with yawning

Having understood the reasons why a person often yawns, it is necessary to move on to solving this problem.

Frequent manifestations of this process can lead to discomfort in one’s own life and the lives of others, so it is worth fighting the root causes.

Listen to some tips to help you get rid of frequent yawning:

1. Deep breaths. Proper supply of oxygen to the body will contribute to the absence of yawning.

   While sitting at work, think about your breathing and try to increase the pace of your inhalations and exhalations.

2. Licking lips. When you feel a yawn coming on, immediately run your tongue over your lips. This move will help stop the process.

   If this method does not help, you can stretch your tongue up, down and to the sides.

3. Limiting the contagious effect. If you watch your neighbor trying to yawn, turn away. In addition, a mirror effect can occur even when reading about people yawning or when looking at pictures of a similar nature.

   Therefore, limit contact with these situations, and when talking, do not look at your interlocutor while yawning.

4. Normalization of rest and sleep. This approach will help to significantly reduce the frequency of opening the mouth to take in air. A sufficient number of hours of sleep will reduce fatigue and add vigor to the body.
5. Decreased body temperature. Try to unbutton your shirt or wash your face cool water. A good way is to wrap a piece of ice in a cloth and apply it to your head.
6. Breathing exercise. Sharp exhalations and inhalations will help you cope with yawning at any time.

Another good way– drinking water frequently. Once in the body, the liquid saturates it. If it is absent, a feeling of drowsiness and fatigue appears.

Important! Useful advice There will be normalization and variety of nutrition.

Add bananas, chocolate and citrus fruits to your diet - they are great for producing endorphins that lift your mood.

Limit the use of sleeping pills, and also add daily half-hour walks in the air to your regimen. Then the body will be completely saturated with oxygen and will always be in good shape.

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Every person yawns, even in the womb. Why does a person yawn? Yawning is an involuntary reflex, a breathing act. To get a larger portion of air, a person begins to yawn. When inhaling, a person opens his mouth, pharynx and glottis wide. Both men and women are susceptible to yawning. This process contagious, if a person looks at someone yawning, he will also yawn. The reason why a person yawns often is that he often lacks oxygen.

Reasons for yawning

There can be many reasons why a person yawns:

• Oxygen replenishment. When it accumulates in the blood a large number of carbon dioxide, the body reacts to this by yawning. When yawning, a person opens his mouth wide and receives a large amount of oxygen.
• Energy replenishment. A person needs to yawn after sleep to invigorate the body. Therefore, a person may yawn when tired after a working day. If you stretch while yawning, the blood is actively saturated with oxygen and blood circulation increases. The person becomes more alert and attentive.
• Calming effect. A person may yawn when he is very worried before a significant event. Yawning occurs before a speech, exam, or other stressful situations. When yawning, a person becomes toned, calms down and experiences excitement.
• Beneficial effect on the ears and nose. Thanks to the yawning process, the channels going into the maxillary sinuses And eustachian tubes, which eliminates ear congestion. During yawning, air pressure in the middle ear normalizes.
• Relaxation and relaxation. Yawning can help relieve stress. Some breathing exercises use yawning for relaxation. To do this, you need to lie down, relax and open your mouth wide, as when yawning. This will help relieve stress and fatigue, prepare for sleep and calm down.
• Boredom and apathy. Why do people yawn when they are bored? Blood stagnation occurs in the brain due to passivity. A person is not interested, he is forced to listen to boring information, so he yawns to cheer himself up. Some studies have shown that yawning can help relieve stress. Therefore, a person may yawn involuntarily during lectures or during a monotonous conversation.
• Brain nutrition. During the passive period, when a person does not move and is bored, the functioning of nerve cells decreases and breathing becomes slower. While yawning, people replenish the required amount of oxygen, and blood supply to the vessels of the brain increases. When a person yawns, he opens his mouth wide, so a high level of oxygen enters the cells. The brain is saturated with oxygen, and the person is invigorated.
• Regulating brain temperature. Some scientists believe that yawning regulates the temperature of the brain, which is why people yawn when it's hot in the summer. Thanks to a large portion of cool oxygen, brain cells cool down and begin to function normally. The blood is saturated with oxygen and the person becomes cheerful and rested again.

Help with frequent yawning

If you yawn frequently, it means your body lacks oxygen and sleep. To replenish oxygen in the body, it is necessary to frequently exercise hiking, play sports, perform breathing exercises. The room should be constantly ventilated before going to bed. If you are attacked by yawning at work, you should go out or open the window, warm up and stretch. This will help you cheer up and tone up, and also make your brain work more actively. Every hour you need to warm up, go outside if possible, or open a window.

The reason why a person yawns often may be serious disorders in the body, such as Iron-deficiency anemia, chronic fatigue, low blood pressure and others. If yawning is accompanied by weakness and apathy, the reason may be anemia or a lack of vitamins in the body, insufficient nutrition and excessive dieting. If you experience frequent yawning, you should consult a doctor and get tested.

A condition such as chronic fatigue can be the reason why a person yawns. This is a very dangerous phenomenon, since the body is exhausted and needs rest. Many people do not pay attention and do not go to the doctor, thinking that it is simple fatigue. Chronic fatigue can disrupt the functionality of all body systems. Pressure may increase and fail the immune system, the risk increases heart attack and stroke, infertility occurs and the aging process accelerates. Stress over a long period of time can lead to anxiety disorder or depression.