• Question: why do we yawn?

    Asked by kaynul to Amelia, Jim, Liz, Prateek, Richard on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amelia Markey

      Amelia Markey answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Interesting question. I had to google this one! 😉

      So yawning is an involuntary response and there are lots of theories as to why we do it.

      * The Physiological Theory — Our bodies induce yawning to draw in more oxygen or remove a build-up of carbon dioxide.

      * The Evolution Theory — Some think that yawning is something that began with our ancestors, who used yawning to show their teeth and intimidate others. An offshoot of this theory is the idea that yawning developed from early man as a signal for us to change activities.

      * The Boredom Theory — In the dictionary, yawning is said to be caused by boredom, fatigue or drowsiness. Although we do tend to yawn when bored or tired, this theory doesn’t explain why we yawn when we’re not bored.

      So there’s some theories, to get an answer you would have to conduct some big experiments studying lots of people in different situations.

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