Yawns cool the brain

Recent research has finally found an explanation for why we yawn.

They are far from just increasing blood flow to the brain as previously thought. It turns out that when we yawn we cool down our own brain, thus helping it to do more efficient work.

Sleep-wake cycles, stress and many other processes in the body are associated with fluctuations in brain temperature.

And the main function of yawns is to maintain the optimal temperature. According to this hypothesis, yawn frequency can be easily controlled by changing the temperature of the environment – for example, in a cool room, the brain will cool down much faster.

Scientists also suggest that yawning occurs only in a certain temperature range, or as they call it – a “temperature window”.

It should be noted that there are two types of yawning: spontaneous and in response to another person yawning (this works even if you just look at a picture of people yawning).

Jörg Massen and Kim Duch from the University of Vienna measured the frequency of the second type of yawning among pedestrians on the streets of the Austrian capital.

They were asked to look at a series of photographs of yawning people, and then tell themselves how often they yawned.

Scientists conducted two series of experiments – in summer and in winter, and then compared the obtained results with the results of a similar study conducted in Arizona, USA. This American state is known for its hot and dry climate.

The results were very curious for the scientists: people in Vienna yawned more often in the summer than in the winter, while at the same time in Arizona it was just the opposite. There, people yawned more often during the cold months than during the warm season.

This means that the work is not in the specific time of the year, but in that the yawn in response of someone else is triggered at a temperature of our environment close to 20 degrees.

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The contagiousness of yawning is significantly reduced in high temperatures (Arizona’s average summer temperature is 37 degrees) as well as in freezing weather, such as in winter in Vienna.

And since yawning is needed to cool the brain, this mechanism stops working when the ambient temperature becomes close to body temperature – 36.6-37 degrees.

If it is cold and frosty on the street, additional cooling of the brain simply does not make any sense, according to Jörg Massen, the lead author of the study.

Most of the research on yawning elicited in response to someone else yawning emphasizes its connection to the person’s emotional and personality characteristics.

However, this does not change the fact that the research done proves the existence of another important reason – the need to regulate the temperature of the brain.

Cooling the brain, in turn, improves its performance and increases mental performance.

So you’re probably yawning not just because you didn’t get enough sleep last night, or because you’re currently feeling tired and need a nap. It could just be your brain telling you that in order to work more efficiently and better, it needs some coolness.