1 yr. ago • 98%

TIL yawning is observed in almost all vertebrate animals and is "contagious" across species. There is no consensus on why yawning occurs.

Today I Learned (TIL) @lemmit.online TIL almost all vertebrates yawn. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even fish all share this trait.

50 comments

it exists to make evident it's time to end the meeting

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- Prior to the adult life of the individual, however, this is a harmful trait as it only serves to make their teacher angry at them for no good reason whatsoever.
  
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Reading the title of this post made me yawn.

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- Reading that this guy yawned made me yawn.
  
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  I farted.
  
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- Reading your comment made me yawn
  
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Seems like if you read between the lines, there's a certain commonality in increased respiration/alertness, stress response and showing of teeth that solves a common need across species. When a subject recognizes a lack of alertness, a present threat or the need for aggressive action in the near future, a yawn can help prepare for that while also giving pause to those who might be threats and/or potentially paralyzing prey. The failure in consensus here appears, to me, an inability to describe those seemingly disparate needs as related to the physiology that drives them. Not a lack of understanding, so much as a deficiency in perlocution.

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- Ay yo so I was bout to tell you how that's all wrong, but then you go throwin out words like "perlocution" and now I realize you probly know what the fuck is up, so I'm just gonna trust.
  
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  Perchance.
  
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- I've read that people with autism are less likely to catch a yawn. Not sure if that's true.
  
  I've taken meds that caused uncontrollable yawning. That's super annoying!
  
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  Permanently Deleted
  
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  You're thinking of psychopathy.
  
  A true psychopath (someone with no real empathy) will not catch a yawn as it requires an empathetic response
  
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reading the title of this post made me yawn lol

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- It was the picture for me
  
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  It's such a good self portrait.
  
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- welp, i'm glad i wasn't alone
  
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It's from when caveman wanted to leave their friends cave and go home, but can't get an ugg in and they don't want to be rude.

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I used to have a dog that would yawn with a little whine whenever she was frustrated. It was adorable.

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- I call that the "silent scream"
  
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  It wasn't silent, that's part of what made it so cute. She whined while yawning.
  
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- That's pretty common among cats and dogs. Sometimes the clever ones will hide a bite they decided against at the last second with a yawn, too.
  
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I watched a video a couple years ago where they did an experiment with chimps. I thought they concluded that the "cantagious" yawning has to deal with the animals empathy and wanting to be like others, it was a social thing in pretty sure. I have no idea where to even find this video though so take that with a grain of salt

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- Mythbusters rated contagious yawns as plausible, I believe, because they observed multiple instances of yawns spreading throughout a building where the participants couldn't see each other.
  
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  Its all pretty interesting to think about honestly! Hopefully we get an actual answer instead of just speculation!
  
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Lmao, the guy in the thumbnail painting was a big meme years ago on the internet. Remember that time lol

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- Joseph Ducreux. He did a load more.
  
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i thought it was to clear out carbon dioxide build up deep in your lungs, and instinctually its an indicator of rest?

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- As someone with asthma and lowered ability to cycle out CO2, yawning has always helped me restore the "full" feeling and your comment just made everything snap into place.
  
  The primary driver of suffocation panic, pain, and feeling of air starvation isn't the lack of oxygen but CO2 buildup. It makes sense that yawning on command could then help alleviate the symptoms of CO2 buildup in asthma sufferers.
  
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  Might be a group protection mechanism to indicate low oxigen in crammed spaces qith many individuals. In addition to that could be a geoup trigger for rest.
  
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- I always thought it was due to clearing the lungs out or to regulate them but then I saw a turtle yawn under water. I then thought it's ancestors wouldn't have been swimmers so maybe it's instinctive still, but then it would need a mechanism to prevent water inhalation. So why retain the yawn.
  
  Perhaps as you say it's more about visual communication to others around you.
  
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- It seems most sensible to me that it serves a bunch of uses: clearing the lungs, alerting yourself and others that you're tired and probably need someone else to take over, social bonding, spooking predators..
  
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LPT: Getting mauled by a kodiak? Try yawning!

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Permanently Deleted

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I had heard this and tried to get my dog to yawn. No dice.

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I yawned as this was scrolling into view wtf

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I guess it’s just a biological indicator to remind you that you’re tired. In modern life people don’t usually find their jobs exciting. We were hunter and gatherers a few thousand years back and I bet they didn’t yawn as much hunting prey. Maybe when sewing or making clay pots. Of which I am smoking a lot of currently. What were we taking about again?

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- The big one for me is night watch, if you're on watch and notice yourself yawning then you know that it's time to wake someone else to take over, because if you fall asleep that's very dangerous.
  
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  When I was in the military I used to hold my duty flashlight right in front of me with my arm extended. That way if I fell asleep the flashlight would hit the ground and wake me up.
  
  Also hot sauce under the tongue helps a bit.
  
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Because I'm tired

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I wouldn't be surprised if it's not the human that instigates the yawn at all, and it's initiated by the lung microbiome to regulate its environment.

For science: anyone up for huffing some chlorine to see if their yawning goes away?

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Got me too

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