Yawn science. Medical search. Frequent questions

Previous studies have suggested that there is a connection between contagious yawning and empathy. (psychologytoday.com)
The lack of association in our study between contagious yawning and empathy suggests that contagious yawning is not simply a product of one's capacity for empathy," said study author Elizabeth Cirulli, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University School of Medicine. (psychologytoday.com)
In contrast to previous studies, the researchers at Duke did not find a strong connection between contagious yawning and empathy, intelligence , or time of day. (psychologytoday.com)

A new study suggests that contagious yawning is not strongly related to variables like empathy, tiredness, or energy levels. (psychologytoday.com)
However, researchers at The Duke Center for Human Genome Variation found that contagious yawning may decrease as people age and may not be associated with empathy. (psychologytoday.com)
The study , titled "Individual Variation in Contagious Yawning Susceptibility Is Highly Stable and Largely Unexplained by Empathy or Other Known Factors," was published March 14 in the journal PLOS ONE . (psychologytoday.com)
Contagious yawning is a form of social mirroring, where we imitate the actions of others, and it's linked to empathy and creating social bonds. (uknewsheadlines.online)
Previous studies have shown, for example, that people who score higher on measures of empathy are more likely to return yawns than people who aren't as empathetic. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
Dogs researchers says that besides the fact that yawning in dog's is a part of a communication/language it can also be associated with empathy. (woofdogs.com)

Yawning is known to be contagious in humans but now scientists have shown that pet dogs can catch a yawn, too. (bbc.co.uk)
Until now, only humans and their close primate relatives were thought to find yawning contagious. (bbc.co.uk)
In humans, yawning is often triggered by the perception that others are yawning (for example, seeing a person yawning, or talking to someone on the phone who is yawning). (wikipedia.org)
Yawning is sometimes accompanied, in humans and other animals, by an instinctive act of stretching several parts of the body including the arms, neck, shoulders and back. (wikipedia.org)
There are a number of theories that attempt to explain why humans and other animals yawn. (wikipedia.org)
Humans and chimps both yawn more when friends and acquaintances yawn than when strangers yawn, and people who don't have much insight into what others are feeling---such as very young children and people with autism---don't seem to catch contagious yawns. (discovermagazine.com)
Contagious yawning is a phenomenon that only occurs in humans and chimpanzees as a response to hearing, seeing, or even thinking about yawning. (psychologytoday.com)
Yawning is a primitive reflex that's not limited to humans: chimpanzees, dogs and cats also do it - even when they spend most of their time asleep on the sofa (maybe not the chimpanzees). (uknewsheadlines.online)
Certain apes, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, which are some of the closest evolutionary relatives to humans, catch each other's yawns. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
One thing researchers haven't figured out is why dogs yawn along with humans. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
I think it would be very hard to study contagious yawning between humans and cats," Romero said. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
Like we humans do first thing in the AM, right after they wake up in the morning…and in the afternoon or right after that midday nap, cats start stretching their backs, their legs, right up to the tips of their paws, and then, they start yawning. (floppycats.com)

How many times have you felt the urge to yawn while reading this blog post? (psychologytoday.com)
Researchers from the University of Nottingham have found that we're pretty powerless to stop a yawn in its tracks, and trying to stifle it can increase the urge to yawn. (uknewsheadlines.online)

A 2010 study from the University of Connecticut found that most children aren't susceptible to contagious yawning until they're about four years old-and that children with autism are less likely to yawn contagiously than others. (psychologytoday.com)
In a study of about 30 6- to 15-year-olds with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the Connecticut researchers found that children with ASD were less likely to yawn contagiously than their typically developing peers. (psychologytoday.com)
Children with more severe autistic symptoms were much less likely to yawn contagiously than those with milder diagnoses. (psychologytoday.com)
The only independent factor that significantly influenced contagious yawning was age: as age increased, participants were less likely to yawn. (psychologytoday.com)
THURSDAY, Aug. 8 (HealthDay News) - Yawn in the presence of your pooch and they're likely to yawn right back at you, a new study shows. (nilesanimalhospital.com)

Spontaneous yawning typically occurs when someone is tired or bored . (psychologytoday.com)
Spontaneous yawning is first observed in the womb, while contagious yawning doesn't begin until early childhood . (psychologytoday.com)

This "contagious" yawning has also been observed in chimpanzees, dogs, cats, birds, and reptiles and can occur between members of different species. (wikipedia.org)

In 2007, researchers, including a professor of psychology from the SUNY Albany (US), proposed yawning may be a means to keep the brain cool. (wikipedia.org)
Researchers have identified new factors that make yawning contagious. (psychologytoday.com)
Researchers found that contagious yawning may decrease as people age. (psychologytoday.com)
The researchers emphasized that a better understanding of the biology involved in contagious yawning could ultimately lead to a better understanding of illnesses such as schizophrenia and autism. (psychologytoday.com)
The researchers found that certain individuals were less susceptible to contagious yawns than others. (psychologytoday.com)
The researchers at Duke are planning to study potential genetic influences that contribute to contagious yawning. (psychologytoday.com)
Researchers also strapped heart rate monitors to the dogs to make sure they weren't yawning because they were stressed or anxious. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
Dogs live in packs, and Madsen expects that all animals that live in groups may demonstrate the ability to catch yawns.However, researchers say the jury is still out on whether cats care that their owners are tired. (nilesanimalhospital.com)

Of the 328 people studied, 222 contagiously yawned at least once. (psychologytoday.com)
And the ability to yawn contagiously appears to develop with age. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
Beyond apes, one species of bird appears to be able to yawn contagiously, and several recent studies have suggested that Canis familiaris , also known as man's best friend, can do it, too. (nilesanimalhospital.com)

About half of adults yawn after someone else yawns due to a universal phenomenon called "contagious yawning. (psychologytoday.com)

Yawning is mostly involuntary. (woofdogs.com)
Yawning is a natural involuntary response to feeling tired or bored Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. (sleepfoundation.org)

Typically, yawning is associated with boredom and tiredness, but according to hypnotherapist and yawn expert Dipti Tait , this couldn't be further from the truth. (uknewsheadlines.online)

A similar hypothesis suggests yawning is used for regulation of body temperature. (wikipedia.org)
Significant evidence supports the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis that suggests rises in cortisol levels are associated with yawning. (bournemouth.ac.uk)

At least one study suggests that yawning, especially psychological "contagious" yawning, may have developed as a way of keeping a group of animals alert. (wikipedia.org)
Anecdotal evidence suggests that yawning helps increase a person's alertness. (wikipedia.org)
But a new study suggests the effect may not be limited to the room's human inhabitants: Dogs can 'catch' yawns from people, the study found---especially their owners, hinting that pooches may empathize with familiar people. (discovermagazine.com)
Yawn Study Suggests Yes. (nationalgeographic.com)

Age was the most important predictor of contagious yawning, and even age was not that important. (psychologytoday.com)
Saliva cortisol and yawning as a predictor of neurological disease. (bournemouth.ac.uk)

One study states that yawning occurs when one's blood contains increased amounts of carbon dioxide and therefore becomes in need of the influx of oxygen (or expulsion of carbon dioxide) that a yawn can provide. (wikipedia.org)

Pubmed , Web of Science and Lilacs were systematically searched until 01/02/2023. (bvsalud.org)

So what's going on in our bodies and brains when we are yawning, and why is it so hard to stop? (uknewsheadlines.online)
Some studies show yawning is a way for our brains to 'cool off,' which can be accomplished by [the] secretion of tears, similar to sweating," she says. (wellandgood.com)

Ultimately, contagious yawning remains an unexplained mystery to scientists. (psychologytoday.com)
Although copying a yawn may not sound like such an impressive trick, scientists think it's a sign of something important - the ability to empathize and bond with others. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
A few minutes before falling asleep, the cat will begin yawning and scientists believe that it is a moment that lets the brain know that it is time to settle down and rest. (floppycats.com)
As evidence mounted and the science community unified on the role of man in causing climate change, Trump became more and more firm on the idea that all of these scientists and studies promulgated a myth. (jonathanturley.org)

however, the frequency of yawning is not decreased by providing more oxygen or reducing carbon dioxide in the air. (wikipedia.org)
Yawning is our brain's way of getting more oxygen into our systems," she explains. (uknewsheadlines.online)
The high energy consumption leads to a decreased oxygen level in the blood, so the body sets off the yawn to replenish the oxygen and reenergize the muscles. (floppycats.com)
One theory is that our breathing slows down and we don't get enough oxygen, therefore we yawn to get more oxygen into our lungs and move carbon dioxide out of our blood. (woofdogs.com)
It could be that he is yawning because he has high level carbon dioxide in the blood and he needs to yawn to get more oxygen in and move the carbon dioxide out of the blood. (woofdogs.com)

Their 2017 study, A Neural Basis for Contagious Yawning , shows that while our propensity for contagious yawning is completely individual and varies from person to person, our ability to resist catching a yawn is limited. (uknewsheadlines.online)

In two experiments, subjects with cold packs attached to their foreheads and subjects asked to breathe strictly nasally exhibited reduced contagious yawning when watching videos of people yawning. (wikipedia.org)
When listening to recordings of people yawning, 12 of the 29 dogs in the study yawned themselves. (discovermagazine.com)
On average, participants yawned between 0 and 15 times while watching a 3-minute video of people yawning. (psychologytoday.com)
Although some people think it's a possible diagnostic sign, I don't think it's specific enough to be useful, and I don't know of anything that's benefited by intentional yawning. (oneradionetwork.com)
I've personally remedied many cases of edema by simply getting people to yawn and stretch (pandiculate) to the point of activating their lacrimal glands while simultaneously putting pressure on their Achilles tendons (the same tendons used for the Achilles Reflex Test used to diagnose hypothyroidism). (oneradionetwork.com)
In addition to leading The Planetary Society, he travels the world lecturing on the importance of science, space exploration, and inspiring generations of young people to change the world. (aeispeakers.com)
The question of what happens when machines get to be as intelligent as and even more intelligent than people seems to occupy many science-fiction writers. (acm.org)
Describes what makes people cough, sneeze, burp, yawn and have other such reflex responses and. (rif.org)
It even happens when we hear people talk about yawning or if we read about it. (floppycats.com)
People yawn for a few reasons. (woofdogs.com)
People who yawn excessively tend to have an underlying issue causing the yawns. (sleepfoundation.org)

The same study, published in Evolutionary Psychology , also reveals that, contrary to popular belief, yawning is not a precursor to sleep but rather a way of mitigating the need to sleep . (uknewsheadlines.online)

Yawning (oscitation) most often occurs in adults immediately before and after sleep, during tedious activities and as a result of its contagious quality. (wikipedia.org)

If they are nervous or they just feel uneasy, they will be seen yawning because this may discharge some of that bad energy, all while showing off their ferocious teeth. (floppycats.com)
For example Dog who doesn't feel comfortable around children and while walking with his owner he is noticing a few kids playing in front he might yawn to tell his owner and the children he feels uneasy. (woofdogs.com)

A yawn is a reflex characterized by a long inspiratory phase with gradual mouth gaping, followed by a brief climax (or acme) with muscle stretching, and a rapid expiratory phase with muscle relaxation, which typically lasts a few seconds. (wikipedia.org)
Electrical activity in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved and with yawning and is found to be correlated with cortisol levels. (bournemouth.ac.uk)

Is there such a thing as excessive yawning in cats? (floppycats.com)
When you notice that your cat's yawning is excessive, the first thing you should do is examine its mouth (we're going to tell you more about that right away). (floppycats.com)
You shouldn't ignore the excessive yawning. (floppycats.com)
Knowing the signs of excessive yawning can help you identify and treat the root cause. (sleepfoundation.org)

Yawning is a primal reflex and, weirdly, one that is incredibly contagious. (uknewsheadlines.online)
He graduated from Adano Ley's Texas Institute of Reflex Sciences in 1979. (oneradionetwork.com)
A yawn is a natural reflex that all vertebrate animals experience Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. (sleepfoundation.org)

Think of a cat when it's been sitting for a while, when it wants to move, the first thing it will do is stretch and yawn," says Tait. (uknewsheadlines.online)
He told George to yawn and stretch. (oneradionetwork.com)

During a yawn, muscles around the airway are fully stretched, including chewing and swallowing muscles. (wikipedia.org)
In two studies using identical paradigms, a total of 108 healthy subjects were exposed to yawning-provoking stimuli so that their cortisol levels and electrical nerve impulses from their jaw muscles was recorded. (bournemouth.ac.uk)
The] tightening of the facial muscles around the eyes when we yawn causes the pool of tears that normally coat our eyes (i.e. our tear film) to 'overflow,'" explains Dagny Zhu, MD , a Harvard-trained specialist in cornea, cataract, and laser refractive surgery and a surgeon with Nvision Eye Centers . (wellandgood.com)

Under the first condition, the stranger yawned once the dogs had made eye contact with them. (bbc.co.uk)
Under the second condition, the same procedure was followed, but this time the stranger opened and closed their mouth but did not yawn. (bbc.co.uk)
The team found that 21 out of 29 dogs yawned when the stranger in front of them yawned - on average, dogs yawned 1.9 times. (bbc.co.uk)
It made a big difference, however, whom they heard: The dogs yawned more than four times as much when they heard their owner yawn as when they heard as a stranger. (discovermagazine.com)
And the more connected we are with someone, the more likely it is that our mirror neurons will be matched - meaning you're more likely to catch a yawn from a family member than a stranger. (uknewsheadlines.online)

By contrast, no dogs yawned during the non-yawning condition. (bbc.co.uk)

In conclusion, dogs will yawn for many reasons however is is important to put everything in context. (woofdogs.com)

As we all know, yawning is heavily tied to the feeling of sleepiness. (floppycats.com)

The Germanic root has Proto-Indo-European cognates, from a root *g̑hēi- found also with -n- suffix in Greek χαίνω ('to yawn'), and without the -n- in English gap (compare the figura etymologica in Norse ginnunga-gap), gum ('palate') and gasp (via Old Norse), Latin hiō, hiatus, and Greek chasm, chaos. (wikipedia.org)
Studies have found that certain individuals are more susceptible to contagious yawning than others. (psychologytoday.com)

We gave dogs everything: visual and auditory stimulus to induce them to yawn," Dr Senju, told BBC News. (bbc.co.uk)

The study of yawning is called chasmology. (wikipedia.org)
The Duke study aimed to better define how certain factors affect someone's susceptibility to contagious yawning. (psychologytoday.com)
We tried to create a comfortable atmosphere in doing the experiment, and sometimes it was so comfortable for them that they fell asleep," said study author Teresa Romero, a research fellow in the department of cognitive and behavioral science at the University of Tokyo. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
As happened in the new study, Madsen's study of contagious yawning in puppies often lulled the dogs to sleep. (nilesanimalhospital.com)

Their long-term goal is to identify the genetic basis of contagious yawning as a way to better understand human diseases like schizophrenia and autism, as well as general human functioning. (psychologytoday.com)

Scientist, comedian, teacher, and author, Bill Nye is best known as the host of the PBS children's science show "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (1993-1998), and for his many subsequent appearances in popular media as a science educator. (aeispeakers.com)

Their brain sends a signal to their pandicular system (the part of the nervous system that keeps us awake and alert) to yawn when it feels like it needs to move or pay attention and stay alert. (uknewsheadlines.online)

She said that at a basic level, contagious yawning probably has something to do with group coordination and synchronizing group behavior. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
The dogs] internalized the emotion that yawning reflects, and basically coordinated their behavior to that of the yawner," she said. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
Dogs believed to yawn as a displacement behavior. (woofdogs.com)

Trained in the science of custom-building organisms known as synthetic biology. (acm.org)

One simple yawn and you get tagged as lazy. (plantscience.in)
And if you're still feeling lazy for yawning so much, just take a look at your cat. (uknewsheadlines.online)

Did you know that the average adult yawns up to 20 times per day? (uknewsheadlines.online)
Just writing this sentence has made me yawn four times, and that's just from thinking about it. (uknewsheadlines.online)
We presume you've already yawned several times up to this part of the article. (floppycats.com)

After all, doesn't it seem kind of random that yawning basically makes you cry? (wellandgood.com)
Basically, when your eyes scrunch up during a yawn, they push out tears. (wellandgood.com)

While science has yet to find a clear cut explanation, there are several theories available. (floppycats.com)
In more details, displacement behaviors such as yawning can be used to resolve conflict the dog find himself in. (woofdogs.com)

One sleepy person can start a bout of contagious yawning that quickly spreads through a room. (discovermagazine.com)
Does looking at an image of a person yawning make you yawn? (psychologytoday.com)

This article was originally published in the Spring 2018 Intelligence issue of Popular Science. (popsci.com)

Dr Senju and his team wondered whether dogs - that are very skilled at reading human social cues - could read the human yawn signal, and set out to test the yawning capabilities of 29 canines. (bbc.co.uk)
Send us your pictures of you and your yawning dogs. (bbc.co.uk)
Dogs Catch Yawns From Their Owners. (discovermagazine.com)
The research, a series of carefully controlled experiments with 25 dogs of different breeds, confirms that dogs are more likely to "catch" their owner's yawns than a stranger's and more likely to respond to real yawns as opposed to fake ones. (nilesanimalhospital.com)

Sign up for our weekly science updates. (discovermagazine.com)
Yawning can be a true act of comfort, a sign of pure relaxation, but when it is done excessively, it can also be a cry for help. (floppycats.com)

Scirus - Search engine for science Web sites and scientific research articles (from ScienceDirect, Medline, BioMed Central, and other sources). (sonic.net)

Answer clues based on the content and vocabulary words from Basher Science: Technology: A Byte-Sized. (rif.org)

With his unique combination of science and comedy, Bill Nye entertains audiences while discussing climate change and the importance of protecting the planet. (aeispeakers.com)

Several studies have shown that children don't begin to show contagious yawning until around 4 years of age, and only reach adult levels around 12 years of age," said Elainie Madsen, a comparative psychologist at Lund University in Sweden, who has studied contagious yawning. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
This Week in Science - The Kickass Science Podcast The kickass science and technology radio show that delivers an irreverent look at the week in science and technology. (twis.org)

Approximately twenty psychological reasons for yawning have been proposed by scholars but there is little agreement on the primacy of any one. (wikipedia.org)
Today, approximately 520 NIOSH employees work in both the original and new facility, conducting research on the leading edge of science that makes American workplaces safer. (cdc.gov)

When you yawn, you open your mouth, deeply inhale through your mouth and nose, and exhale slowly. (sleepfoundation.org)

The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science and technology. (todayinsci.com)
Basher Science: Technology: A Byte-Sized World! (rif.org)
Look for vocabulary words from Basher Science: Technology: A Byte-Sized World! (rif.org)
We advocate for organizational leaders to inform their digital health equity strategies with a balanced measure of "techno-skepticism", grounded in implementation science, that can ensure alignment between health technology and health equity. (cdc.gov)

although the team could not rule out stress-induced yawning - they hope to in future studies. (bbc.co.uk)
This is one of the most comprehensive studies to examine the factors that influence contagious yawning to date. (psychologytoday.com)
The United States was to provide much of the science and technical know-how, while China would contribute knowledge gained through decades of panda studies and, of course, provide the actual animals. (smithsonianmag.com)

Chemistry: the subtle science. (sciencemadness.org)
Where I want to high school, more money and effort is pushed into the school football team than the Science Olympaid team and chemistry department combined! (sciencemadness.org)

Tait agrees, adding that "when my clients yawn, I see it as a really good thing. (uknewsheadlines.online)
After a full-body workout running around the house, you could see your cat yawning and there is a very good explanation for that. (floppycats.com)
There's no real way to stop our eyes from tearing when yawning, but it's generally a good thing to keep our eyes lubricated," Dr. Zhu says. (wellandgood.com)
Science is seen as a subject you have to take, get a good grade on (85+). (sciencemadness.org)

Still, age only explains 8% of the variability in continuous yawn response. (psychologytoday.com)
The vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained," Cirulli concluded. (psychologytoday.com)

Read more about Why Do We Yawn When We Exercise? (mcgill.ca)
Notice that many of the reasons for yawning is connected directly or indirectly with feeling uncomfortable at the moment of yawning and it is important to read the dog and try to recognize the cause for it. (woofdogs.com)

We yawn for a variety of reasons. (sleepfoundation.org)

i scienced some earlier today while i was baking a tray of science. (woot.com)

Lots of animals yawn - often after snoozing. (uknewsheadlines.online)

We've all been there, being so bored out of your wits that you would start yawning suddenly. (floppycats.com)

Fake yawns involve opening and closing the mouth in the movement of a yawn without making any sound. (nilesanimalhospital.com)
Have you ever seen somebody yawn and before you know it, your mouth started opening in a full-blown yawn? (floppycats.com)

Organisms2

Psychiatry and Psychology9

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Health Care1

Contagious yawning and3

Empathy6

Humans12

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Likely to yawn5

Spontaneous2

Chimpanzees1

Researchers8

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Half of adults1

Involuntary2

Tiredness1

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One's1

20231

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20171

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Reflex3

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