yawning... why?

[YellowMaranello]

Whats the purpose of yawning? Sneezing gets rid of stuff in your nose, coughing gets rid of stuff in your throat, burnping gets rid of air in your stomach. But what does yawning do?

[Neutrino]

Make everyone else aroud you yawning too.

[Oz]

It gives more oxygen when brain senses not enough.

[speediva]

Originally posted by ozriceboy
It gives more oxygen when brain senses not enough.

^ What he said!

When your brain is lacking o2, you begin to yawn. You yawn when you're tired because your breathing is slower (you don't exactly need to be breathing heavily in your sleep). As your breathing slows down to accomodate your rest, it also reduces the amount of air (and thus o2) that you are taking in. And now I'm leaving this thread because it's making me *yawn*.

[Jay!]

No, not necessarily...

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/yawning.html
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...6431.Gb.r.html

from Why are yawns contagious?
..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.

[taranaki]

It alerts those of us who are less sensitive to others that we are boring them.

[speediva]

Originally posted by jay@af
No, not necessarily...

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/yawning.html
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...6431.Gb.r.html

Aren't those the brilliant scientists who told the American public that Vitamin C causes cancer???

[super 96 accord]

It's a good tool to see if someone is watching/paying attention to you. I use to use that waaaaaayyyyy back in HS too see if people were checkin me out. I'd yawn and then see if they did too. If they did, HAHA, they're on to me, if not, DAMN, she was ugly anyways