Do you yawn when others yawn ---contagious yawning"

@tudors (1556)
China
February 26, 2009 10:39am CST
When you see the other person yawning in the room, your instinctive response is to yawn too. However, it doesn't mean you are fighting with the urge to sleep. yawning is a process that protects our brain from overheating and serves as an alert signal to others. why do we yawn ? hte theory that yawning results from the lack of oxygen has been disapproved. experiments showed that the alterations in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood didn't affect the yawning reaction. In fact, yawning was found to serve as a brain-cooling mechanism.
3 responses
• United States
26 Feb 09
I remember I looked that up awhile ago because I was curious too. And I still do not understand why it is sooo contagious! Maybe it is just a mental thing...
@tudors (1556)
• China
26 Feb 09
why it is contagious is unclear yet. but it doesn't mean people are sleepy, this is proved. thanks
@ersmommy1 (12588)
• United States
26 Feb 09
I have done this a few times. It does seem to be contagious. It also makes me laugh. It could just be my lack of sleep from dealing with my newborn!
@moneymommy (3418)
• United States
26 Feb 09
Yes this seems to be a very common occurrence. Yawns are contagious thats for sure.