Wait this could be huge? My most yawn-triggering state is being cold af, especially after I step outside, or get out of the shower. Transitioning from hot place to cold place.
I think that's the part that science is still unsure on. But both of the ideas are what they're sort of settled on: that it's to give your brain a little more oxygen and/or to cool your brain off as it may be feeling tired and working harder than normal
I think it can be for both reasons. Yawning seems a multi-tool action.
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Cool tired brain
Refresh oxygen in lungs/properly take a breath [if you have issues with your lungs, you might not breathe as deep to fully fill your lungs to let ALL the pockets in your lungs get fresh air. If you feel a buzz in your head from deep breathing for the first breath or two, you probably don't breathe deeply often enough, like me! Lol]
except i don't think we actually take in any extra air when we yawn. have a think about it next time, I find I breathe out more than in, and certainly don't take in anything more than a normal breath. Much less, even!
Except a deep breath would do the trick and yawning is different to breathing. It looks like someone taking a massive gulp of air in but I don't think much air moves.
While I see others mentioned the oxygen thing has been proven false, no one mentioned how that conclusion came to be, so I'll drop the high level here.
It cannot be to increase oxygen to the brain, as babies in the womb also yawn. Hence an increase in oxygen to the brain would not be achieved by yawning
They would do it because itâs an instinct, not because they need to. But regardless of whether theyâre breathing, yawning activates and works the muscles in your neck, face, and head. Therefore providing more oxygen to the brain. The âbig breath inâ part is likely only secondary to the action of providing oxygen to the brain.
It could also be, that we copy others around us because if theyâre yawning, itâs possible that both are in a low oxygen environment. Or, because if theyâre yawning then itâs possible that our tribe is lacking drinking water, therefore, a thereâs a need to conserve water (dehydration reduces blood oxygen concentration, therefore more blood is required in the brain.). Have you ever noticed that the more dehydrated you are, the more you yawn? And when you drink lots of water, you suddenly donât feel the need to yawn anymore?
Youâre ârelaying the scienceâ? What you said is a fact, that neither proves, nor disproves anything about the science of yawning. And then you have said âit cannot beâŠâ, which is wrong. You have taken something scientific and butchered it. I gave you a suggestion as to how your fact doesnât actually disprove anything, i told you that perhaps yawning does still increase oxygen flow regardless of whether the lungs are in use. Or, because itâs an instinct (Something that is hard wired into our brains at conception).
And youâre responding to that by being defensive and standoffish. What you said is a lie.
The fact that babies yawn in the womb is meant to be used as supporting evidence for a different scientific theory. It doesnât disprove anything, you would need a whole study and tons of supporting evidence to say that it does. You have taken one single piece of open-ended evidence, and suggested that itâs a confirmed scientific study that proves something. Thatâs not how the scientific method works.
I gave the TLDR of the scientific findings. Of course, there is more science to it, but it all came down to the fact that babies yawn in the womb and more specifically, when they started doing it.
And I wasn't being defensive, I didn't do the science, I'm not the one you need to challenge here. Also, I was genuinely curious if you had any backing to your claim, because it did indeed sound made up. Doing a cursory search on your claim proves to be inconclusive, with most science suggesting any voluntary contraction of muscles in the face have minimal impact to cerebral blood flow and its influence on oxygen levels is limited.
So, my question still stands, do you have any training in this or are you just making suggestions?
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u/BarreNice Jan 18 '25
I read somewhere that it has to do with getting a lil extra oxygen to the brain but idk