I was told it's due to your brain needing more oxygen?
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
30 points (84.1% liked)
Ask Lemmy
33792 readers
1397 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's not entirely physiological. It is also very much a psychological phenomenon as well. For example, seeing someone else yawn is more likely to make you yawn. Hell, talking about yawning is more likely to make you yawn. In fact, if you've spent any time in this thread, you've likely yawned already.
Wonder if its related to physiological sigh
That's what I've heard too.
Fun fact: I've been using a ventilator to breathe with for the past six years, my brain should have learned by now that yawning doesn't give it more oxygen. I still yawn.
For questions of fact rather than opinion, you're probably better off asking something like Wikipedia instead of Lemmy.
Do you mean why do we yawn? No one knows as far as I know.
Contagious yawning is so weird! Even writing about it makes it happen! I used to take a med that made me yawn a lot. That was super annoying. Some people with autism don't catch it.
There's a screenshot I've seen a few times over the years, of part of a Tumblr or reddit thread. I've spent the past half hour looking for it, with no joy, so I probably have some details wrong.
The first part, someone comments about someone who got injured and broke the part of his brain that controlled yawning so he just kept yawning for years. And then someone comes in and says something like, "Wait, what - you're telling me that the default is YAWNING = YES and we have a specific mechanism that says 'No, don't yawn this moment' and it does that constantly?!" And ... then there's a third part where they talk about sharks or something? Like I said, I can't find it right now :(
Disclaimer, honestly I don't know.
But I once asked this sort of question regarding hiccups, and some of the answers I got were that it's something of a vestigial reflex from birth, when you take your first breaths.
Not an expert but I remember it was slmething among the lines of accelerating your heartbeat and increasing the air intake. So the blood circulation is improved which activates some parts of your body and you feel more awake.