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Why do we Yawn?

Believe it or not, there are many theories about yawning, but no clearcut reason as to why we yawn. Babies even yawn while they are still in the womb. So, there goes the boredom and/or fatigue reasoning that you may have heard over the years.

The fact is that when we yawn we take in a big breath of oxygen. This big rush of oxygen makes your heart beat faster which could be your body’s way of flushing toxins. The blood needs some more oxygen so it signals the brain to initiate a yawn to bring in a fresh supply. This is one of many theories which says that it is simply a part of breathing.

Have you noticed you can pass a yawn to others? After observing myself yawning,  I have also noticed that if the person I see yawning is not somebody I have some sort of attachment to, I will not catch the yawn. But yawning can also be caught from and/or passed to animals. I don’t claim to understand this at all but have been observing myself more since beginning this little tad of research.

Since beginning this research and noticing my own behavior I lean more toward the answer which notes that a yawn may be the way your body signals a change from one state of being to another. Like when I’m getting ready for bed I start to yawn when I get in bed signaling that I am changing to a resting state. In the morning I yawn a few times when I wake up as well, possibly again signaling the body is changing from resting to waking state. When you yawn from boredom maybe it’s just a way of changing from a higher to a lower level of alertness.

Just a few thoughts for all you busy travel nurses and traveling healthcare professionals who may have pondered this yourselves. I found many great articles to read about yawning. Maybe those yawns on the job mean you need to breathe a little deeper when you have the opportunity and blow out some stress from your always challenging profession. Safe travels.