yawnsleep-blog

[yawnsleep-blog]

Why do we Yawn?

Are you hungry or are you sleepy?

Here at Yawnsleep.com, we wanted to find out.

Before going into the nitty gritty, here’s our perspective.

I don’t think I’ve ever yawned and thought to myself, “I must be hungry”. I actually have never felt hungry when I yawn. It’s actually quite the opposite. The only times i find myself yawning due to consumption is in one of two cases:

I just ate a huge meal, think having seconds during Thanksgiving

When I have been drinking alcohol

I actually find that drinking alcohol causes me to yawn a lot more than having a huge meal. It could be that i'm getting older and my tolerance is super low now lol. In those cases I do yawn because Im sleepy. Same goes with heavy meals, but just to a lesser degree.

So let’s rule out yawning due to hunger or alcohol.

On a side note,  I also wear contacts and towards the end of the night they tend to get more dry, my eyes begin to shut little by little, and my vision gets more blurry. At times, this causes me to yawn. My theory is that this is a natural reaction of the body because I find that yawning causes my eyes to water and hence it lubricates my eyes and contacts so i can see clearly again.

But enough of the personal opinion. Let’s see what science has to say about the correlation between yawning and sleepiness.

Let us first define what Yawning is.

Yawning is a mostly involuntary process of opening the mouth and breathing in deeply, filling the lungs with air. It’s a very natural response to being tired. In fact, yawning is usually triggered by sleepiness or fatigue. It is  followed by a slow expiration, associated with a feeling of comfort. The average duration of the yawn is 5 s.

What we have found through research are three possible reasons why we yawn:

An low energy environment that is lacking arousal

A physiological response of the body to cool down our brain

A sleep disorder

Now lets dive a little further into each of these.

Yawning can often be linked with a boring environment/situation in which there isn’t much interaction happening. Examples of this are driving, watching television, sitting in a lecture or studying. More frequent yawning has been associated with viewing uninteresting repetitive stimuli.

A few  studies have indicated an increase in arousal level after yawning. This was measured by an increase in heart rate lasting up to 15 seconds after the peak of the yawn.

Additionally, a caffeine study showed comparable skin conductance between caffeine intake and yawning. A group of 18 college students were given a single oral dose of caffeine and the results were an increase in skin conductance and frequency of alpha waves. Similar results were found in yawning subjects by other researchers. Since caffeine is a well-known stimulant of the nervous system, it was argued that yawning, like caffeine, might also play a role in arousal reflex of the brain.

Essentially, a yawn is the body’s natural way of keeping our homeostasis, i.e. keeping us awake.

Now let’s look into the second reason. A 2013 study published in the International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research suggests that yawning may help cool the temperature of the brain.

There’s a few things to suggest this like tearing of the eyes which could be releasing heat from the skull, breathing in cool air which reduces the temperature of the blood vessels in our lungs, and the relaxation and contraction of our facial muscles which increases the facial blood flow which subsequently aids in dissipation of heat through our  veins.

Lastly, excessive yawning could also be a sign of a deeper underlying problem like bleeding around the heart, sleep disorders like sleep apnea or narcolepsy, or the inability of the body to regulate its temperature.

Before considering if you have an underlying issue, evaluate your sleep patterns. If they are irregular and inconstient, that may be the cause. Otherwise you may want to contact your doctor.

If excessive yawning is occuring due to a sleep disorder, consider trying our Yawn Deep Sleep aid. It is an all natural formula for a better more restful sleep that can help treat sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea.