My dear sweet husband has a way of imparting knowledge that no one else on earth can possibly come up with. It is one of his more endearing qualities. He is somewhat of a sponge. Read a fact and it stays with him for life. Never mind that the facts that he spouts are ridiculous, irrelevant crazy not pertinent to my life. He still continues to amaze me with his knowledge.
The other day he threw a new one at me. Seems there is research that shows that yawning is related to having a hot brain. Well all I can say is that my brain must be on fire these days because I have been yawning up a storm. I think that being on vacation just makes me tired. I have reached the zen of relaxation or something.
But on to the “study” and I use that term loosely. Evidentially the researchers are proposing that sometimes the brain needs to cool down to work more effectively. In order to do that –yawning occurs to take in cooler air from the surroundings to help facilitate this.
The article in The New York Times written by Anahad O’Connor goes on to state that yawning does appear to be contagious. I experienced this first hand on the drive to Detroit today with said factoid husband. I was debating the merits of this same article and yawned. Then Chris yawned. Then I yawned again. Seems that the mere mention of yawning elicits a Pavlovian response from me. A study where participants watching yawn videos (can anyone say boring??) induced yawns but when cold ice packs were applied to the subjects’ heads the yawning stopped. Probably had brain freeze at that point.
O’Connor goes on to cite a study of 160 people (now is that really a good sample size?????) shared that yawning varied by season. More yawners in the winter months. That makes no sense to me whatsoever.
All I know is that this article (read it here) left me yawning…..repeatedly. Someone alert the firefighters–my brain is on fire!
It's Just Life 
I’ve been yawning up a major storm recently, so much so that I call it “cluster yawning”. One, jaw-breaking, lip-stretching, Nightmare on Elm St. scary face, after another. Have to admit that I was concerned and ran to Google for some self-diagnosis which was alarming.
Like Mr. Factoid’s explanation ever so much better!
I think you have your answer, Patty!!! Your brain is just hot!!! Very hot. On fire hot. Ready to ignite hot. Too much thinking will do that. Take a break from thinking for a day. Loved your cluster yawning description–guess it is better than hiccuping???
Ice pack for the brain…ummm…pass. Can I just eat ice cream really fast instead? I have a habit of doing that.
Ooohhhh…ice cream would work too!!!! 🙂
Um, I believe it…. my brain must overheat when I get nervous, because even as a little girl, when worried, I would start to yawn
That is an interesting stress reliever…hmmm…..it makes sense in your case!!!!
Aww on the photo…it keeps distracting me from your real post
I thought yawning is because there aren’t enough oxygen in our brain
I know–the photo is pretty adorable, isn’t it??? Hehehe!!! Stop yawning!
LOL…yawn…doing that a lot this morning!!!! Did you know that Apollo Anton Ohno ( Olympic speed skater) always yawns right before a race…it calms him down!!!!
I did NOT know that!! Thank you, Ms. Trivia!!! You are right up there with Mr. Factoid!!! 🙂 Interesting bit to remember!!!
That is too funny! I thought we yawned when our brains weren’t receiving enough oxygen. Maybe not…..
Love the pic! Not so sure about that study, either. (yawn)
Cute post, I don’t know about it being hot or not but I do know yawning is contagious! I always thought we yawn because our brain needed more oxygen, that’s what I heard somewhere.
Yea, I am not buying this research at all! I think it is a bunch of craziness!!! 🙂 But it made for a good blog post!!! Have a great day!
I don’t mean this as an insult in any way, but now you’ve got me yawning.