*yawn!!!*

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Xenu, Jul 6, 2002.

  1. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

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    Alright, this is a little weird. I think it belongs in this forum, but maybe with a touch of parapsychology....

    I'm sure some of you have noticed how catchy yawns are, maybe even looking at the title to the thread even made you yawn.

    I've noticed a few weird yawning situations. I'll start with the least weird first and then post more later.

    #1 I remember often sitting in class and I'd see someone near the back of the room yawn. Then almost immediately a person in the front of the room, who would have their back turned to the first yawner, would start yawning too.

    What's going on? First off, why is yawning so catchy? Secondly, how could this person even know that the person in the back of the room yawned?
     
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  3. Adam §Þ@ç€ MØnk€¥ Registered Senior Member

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    Well, our senses do sort of have filters on them to cut out things below a certain level from conscious perception. Even if you don't think you hear the person behind you yawning, you most like do register the event subconsciously. Maybe that's all it takes, the subconscious going "Bloody hell, that was a yawn. Yawns are asociated with being tired. Am I tired?"
     
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  5. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    Question: why did you eat battery acid?
     
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  7. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

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    Agreed. Yawns are also associated with lack of oxygen, allow for the body to intake more.

    Yes, have taken this into consideration, this could be the case most of the time. Sometimes though, when I'm watching the yawner (in #1), I can't even hear the person yawn. Then I'm thinking, maybe it's really high pitched, much like a dog whistle, above 20khz or so. Then #2 happens.

    #2 I'm in traffic and passing by a number of cars. Sometimes I'll see two people separated by a couple cars yawn. They can't hear or see each other.

    Could be coincidences I'm picking up on. Could be too much carbon monoxide poison to the brain, causing the person to feel tired or making me hallucinate.

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  8. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    When you look at what yawning is about, you'll find out that it happens because the body needs more oxygen.
    When someone has low oxygen, they might be in a room that is crowded with others with a poor amount of oxygen in the air (especially since with exhale carbon-dioxide).

    Over time the room would lessen in oxygen and cause people to yawn, so there might be a certain amount of the time that yawns occur because everyone needs more oxygen.

    The other is of course the mental triggering, again it's triggering you for oxygen.
     
  9. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

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    So yes, it could be that people in their cars are in more likely need of oxygen so coincidences happen more. But however I don't think of myself or anyone else yawning in more of cars, hmmm.
     
  10. Firefly Registered Senior Member

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    What makes you think that?? :bugeye:

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  11. That One Guy Registered Member

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    Evolutionary

    Yawning is an evolutionary signal that was most often used in groups of primates as a way to ensure a good night's rest. Without this signal, you would have primates with unusual sleeping patterns,usually the younger ones, disturbing those needing sleep. The dominant male would initiate the signal and the others would subconsciously repeat it, thereby beginning the night's rest.
     
  12. Pine_net Chaos Product Registered Senior Member

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    That One Guy is correct. It is an evolutionary trait to signal it is time for sleep. It's in yer genes!


    Welcome to Sciforums That One Guy!
     
  13. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

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    I've been doing a little research and it seems that it's not really clear why we yawn. I did read about experiments that were done where people were given different oxygen levels and people didn't have more or less yawning spats. So maybe "lack of oxygen" isn't the case. Different sources say different things, and there really can be no "this is it for sure" answer.

    Yawning does seem to be contagious however and maybe it's just me but this "communication" seems to travel across distances where sound doesn't seem to be an answer for the medium of communication. Take this for example...

    3. I work at a TV News station as a production worker. A lot of the different areas and equipment are divided up into several rooms which are relatively soundproof (brick walls, double - pained glass, metal doors, etc.). In the audio room that I do a lot of work in I have access to different camera visuals and can hear communications across our RTS headset system. There have been a number of times I'd hear or see someone yawn and the see or hear someone else yawn who has no visual or audio contact with the first yawner. Sometimes it's the case that I'll yawn and then I'll hear someone else on the RTS system yawn afterwards. My mic isn't on when this happens - they have no way of hearing me.

    This kind of thing doesn't happen on a daily basis or anything but it happens enough to feel that it isn't a coincidence, but maybe it is????
     
  14. Joeman Eviiiiiiiil Clown Registered Senior Member

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    No Yawning means you have too much CO2 in your body. That is why yawning is contagious. When people breath in the CO2 you exhale they will start to yawn also. Notice you yawn a lot after a meal because you body has too much carbondioxide from food disgestion.

    Also yawning can be triggered by fatigue. Too much CO2 or hormone like melatonin can cause fatigue.
     
  15. Pine_net Chaos Product Registered Senior Member

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    Virtually any stimulus associated with yawns— including viewing, reading about, and even thinking about, yawning— evokes yawns. (Are you yawning yet?) Yawning spreads in a chain reaction through a group, a compelling example of human herd behavior and a reminder that we are not always in conscious control of our actions. The urge to replicate an observed yawn is clearly an automatic response triggered by our brains.

    The part of the brain that makes us yawn is in the reticular
    formation and it is part of the brain stem, which is the lower part of our brain that is not consciously controlled. This area is made up of small gray matter with threads of white matter woven in. This part also extends down into the spinal cord, and it has both sensory and motor nerves. Sensory nerves allow us to feel and touch and smell whereas the motor nerves allow us to move, dance, ride a bike and other similar things. This formation receives input from higher levels of the brain that control our skeletal muscles, and it alerts the large cerebral cortex, where we "think," to any incoming signals. So, this system, the reticular activating system (RAS), controls things like waking up, going to sleep, and yawning too.

    Studies partially explain the reason for yawning. Although we yawn more when sleepy or bored, it is unclear whether yawning increases alertness. And scientific evidence refutes one of the most popular myths of yawning— that it happens in response to low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels in the blood or brain. Test subjects do not yawn more when breathing air with enhanced levels of carbon dioxide nor do they yawn less when breathing pure oxygen. One fact explains a lot of apparently inconsistent data. People yawn most during behavioral transitions, such as just after waking and shortly before bedtime. Yawning may help facilitate those changes. Contagious yawning may synchronize a group's behavior so that, for instance, a whole family goes to sleep together.

    Taken from various web sources.
     
  16. Firefly Registered Senior Member

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    Reads it and yawns. DAMNIT!!

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    Anyone know if animals yawn too? I mean, triggered by other animals (or humans?) yawning?
     
  17. Adam §Þ@ç€ MØnk€¥ Registered Senior Member

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    Other species also yawn, such as cats, dogs, and horses. We have them all here.
     
  18. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    I saw the thread, and I yawned.

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  19. fadingCaptain are you a robot? Valued Senior Member

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    Umm crap I didn't yawn. Does this mean I'm missing the yawn gene???
     

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