Why are yawns so contagious?

Question

It's really irritating! Once, there was a yawning cycle at home. When I yawned, there was a chain reaction, and everyone else started yawning! And then I yawned again..yaddi yaddi yadda..

HELP! IM DESPERATE!

Love,
Sleepyhead

P.S-- Im still yawning! Gawd!

Answer 1

The daylight savings time change of Oct. 27 seems a "minute matter," but it's one that will affect all of us physically and psychologically. Our body clocks will receive a jolt that will manifest itself in various ways, including trouble falling asleep or waking up at what is, for our bodies, a different hour. And one of the physical effects will be an increase in yawning...and it's almost certain to do so, according to experts. Transition times seem to cause us to yawn - gearing up or ratcheting down the body, gearing up for or coming down from physical effort as well as ratcheting down from emotional events. And once one of us starts to yawn, the rest will fall like dominos. Humans, being copycat creatures, do indeed find yawns quite contagious.

So, the new dawn factor equals the yawn factor, and this week's University of Cincinnati e-briefing examines this little-studied, uncontrollable action of humans and animals: the yawn. But beware, our experts agree: Seeing or hearing a yawn, talking about yawning, reading about yawning, even just thinking about yawning....all will make you yawn. So, you can just consider that you're getting a head start on all the post-time change yawns we're expecting.

Answer 2

Here are several things we can be thankful are not contagious: drooling, nosebleeds, itching, seizures, fartings...

That said, there are several theories for what causes yawns and why they are contasgios. It was orginally thought that people yawned to get more oxygen but this appears not to be true. The most common theory is behavioral. In an article examinging contagious yawns Dr steven M Platek and others state, "contagious yawning may be associated with empathetic aspects of mental strate attriubution and are negatively affected by the increases in schizotypal personality traits much like other self-processing related tasks." Huh? i find myself yawning right now. What they mean is that people are unconsciously imiatating others when they yawn. Humans are not the only species that yawn. Yawning is seen in many animals including cats, fish, and birds, although we don't know what a yawning fish looks like either.

Answer 3

The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain. Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse.

Just saw House season 3 episode 22. House said a lot of things about why Wilson yawned eventhough Wilson just drank coffee and wasnt bored. House mentioned the word mirror neurons... or something like that...

Answer 4

The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn. Mythbusters attempted an experiment documenting this effect in episode 2.28, "Is Yawning Contagious?", with a conclusion of partly confirmed. The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain. Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse.

I got the above info from wikipedia.....you can google it and see what sort of answer you can get...

try this for fun..."try seeing a picture of someone yawn, it might make you yawn too"..have fun...:)

Answer 5

Interesting question! I've often wondered that myself. In fact, I started yawning just reading your question. Yawns are indeed contagious, but I don't think anyone has figured out why. Maybe it's a kind of hypnosis, or like you say, a chain reaction. Or it could have something to do with the subconscious, and is an involuntary reaction to the stimulus of seeing someone else yawn.

Answer 6

LOL. A yawn is the body's sign that there's not enough oxygen going to the brain. Usually it happens when you're tired. The chain fest is probably like anything else, you see it, you do it. Laughs and smiles do the same thing. i would suggest getting at least 8 hours of sleep at night. Or you could just leave the room.

Answer 7

It is an involuntary impulse to yawn when seeing another person, or even animal, yawn. I am not exactly sure why, but I read that it has to do with available oxygen in a room or area. Your mind wants to compete for what is available. I know it sounds like complete BS but that's what I read.

Answer 8

the rationalization we yawn is with the help of the fact our respiration slows inflicting a loss of oxygen and so we yawn to soak up a deep breath, that's why we yawn as quickly as we are drained-our respiration slows down. And as quickly as we see somebody else yawn our respiration slows down somewhat returned so we yawn :)

Answer 9

there is an explanation to this.
this has gotta stop or better yet keep yawning.

Answer 10

I never realized how true that is. The same thing happens to me.